UC-NRLF 


B  3  im  sm 


P-  QUOIS    RELIGION 


ITS  DELATION  TO  Tri.JR  MORALS 


IN   I'  vriTTATj   Flr    -'  KT        'S; \S  1  «>li  THE 

IEE    OF   DO'  :iLLOSOPHY,    IN  THE  FACULTY   ^F 

Po*.*f:.r   '  '"'oLUMiiiA  UNIVE»?T"V 


::EW  VORK 

COLlr:-:iUA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


EXCHANGE 


IEOQUOIS  RELIGION 


AND 


ITS  RELATION  TO  THEIR  MORALS 


BY 

MORRIS  WOLF 


DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  IN  PABTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR  THE 

DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY,  IN  THE  FACULTY  OF 

POLITICAL  SCIENCE,  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


NEW  YORK 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
1919 


vo 


PRESS  OF 

THE  NEW  ERA  PRINTING  COMPANY 
LANCASTER,  PA. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I.    THE  SETTING. 

1.  INTRODUCTION  : 

Modern  approach  to  problem  of  relation  of  religion  and 
morals,  some  recent  conclusions  concerning  it  and  the 
handicaps  they  indicate  1 

2.  THE  EVIDENCE  FOR  THE  IROQUOIS  : 

Its  Nature  and  Defects  12 

3.  MAIN  FEATURES  OF  IROQUOIS  LIFE: 

Country  and   Settlements    16 

Economic   Activities    17 

Social  and  Political  Life 18 

Some  other  Institutions 22 

CHAPTER  II.     IROQUOIS  EELIGION. 

(Chiefly  in  and  before  the  Eighteenth  Century  and  Unaffected 
by  Christian  Influences.) 

1.  DEFINITION  AND  KEMARKS  24 

2.  IROQUOIS  VIEW  OF  THE  WORLD  25 

3.  THE  SPIRIT  WORLD  : 

Greater  Spirits — 

Beliefs    26 

Practices    29 

Lesser  Spirits — 

Beliefs    31 

Practices    3 

4.  DREAMS: 

Beliefs    35 

Practices    36 

5.  SOULS: 

Beliefs 42 

Practices    44 

6.  MISCELLANEOUS  : 

Witchcraft 47 

Shamans    48 

Taboos    .  49 


iii 


iv  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

CHAPTER  III.    IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

(Chiefly  in  and  after  the  Eighteenth  Century  and  Affected 
6y  Christian  Influences.) 

1.  DIVERGENCE  OF  CHRISTIAN  AND  IBOQUOIS  POINTS  OF  VIEW 51 

2.  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES  APPARENT  BEFORE  THE  NINETEENTH  CEN 

TURY: 

Position  and  Nature  of  Great  Spirit 53 

Disappearance  of  some  Great  Deities;  the  White  Dog  Feast. .  55 
Iroquois  notions  concerning: — Good  and  Evil,  Heaven,  Hell, 

Sin  and  Confession,  Prayer,  Baptism   57 

3.  HANDSOME  LAKE  AND  THE  CRYSTALLIZATION  OF  MANY  CHRISTIAN 

INFLUENCES  : 

Changed  conditions  c.  1800 59 

His   Vision    59 

His  Mission    60 

His  Success 60 

His  Teachings    61 

Summary    64 

4.  RELIGIOUS  FESTIVALS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY: 

Keepers  of  the  Faith 65 

The  Religious  Dance  66 

The  Maple  Festival   66 

The  Planting  Festival  66 

The  Spring  Festival    66 

The  Berry  Festival    66 

The  Green  Corn  Festival  66 

The  Harvest  Festival   68 

The  New  Year's  Festival  69 

5.  GENERAL  SUMMARY  OF  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES  71 

CHAPTER  IV.    IROQUOIS  MORALITY  AND  ITS  RELATION  TO 
THEIR  RELIGION. 

1.  DEFINITION  AND  REMARKS    72 

2.  THE  MORALITY  OF  IROQUOIS  RELIGION 73 

3.  RELIGION  AND  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS: 

Puberty  Ceremony  75 

Condoling  Council    75 

Other  Councils 78 

4.  RELIGION  AND  ECONOMIC  INSTITUTIONS: 

Hunting  and  Farming   78 

Property  Ownership    80 

5.  RELIGION  AND  SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS  : 

Social  Bonds 82 

Marriage  and  other  Sex  Relations  82 

Education    83 

Position  of  Women   .               84 


CONTENTS.  v 

6.  EELIGION  AND  SOME  MISCELLANEOUS  INSTITUTIONS  : 

Keepers  of  the  Faith  85 

The  Dance    

war :::::::::::::        II 

Hospitality    86 

Healing    '  *     ^ 

7.  RELIGION  AND  PERSONAL  MORALITY: 

Iroquois  Moral  Code   88 

Unattractive  Traits — 

Ouelty  89 

Lack  of  Eestraint  QQ 

Gambling OQ 

Summaries  of  Iroquois  Vices  and  Crimes ' 99 

Attractive  Traits — 

Personal  Honesty,  Generosity,  Patience,  etc 91 

Care  of  the  Sick   91 

Sympathy    91 

Fine  Feeling  and  Gratitude 92 

Love  of  Peace,  Treatment  of  Ambassadors  and  Adherence 

to  Treaties   93 

Bravery    94 

8.  SUMMARY  OF  THE  LARGER  RELATIONS  OF  RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

AMONG  THE   IROQUOIS    95 

CHAPTER  V.     CONCLUSION. 

RELATION  OF  RELIGION  AND  MORALITY  AMONG  THE  IROQUOIS,  AND  THE 
LIGHT  SHED  THEREBY  UPON  CURRENT  NOTIONS  CONCERNING  SUCH 
RELATIONSHIP  AMONG  SAVAGES 97 

MISSIONARY  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  RELIGIOUS  SANCTION  IN  THE 
MORAL  SPHERE,  AND  THE  REMARKABLE  EFFECT  OF  MISSIONARY 
TEACHING  UPON  THE  RELATION  OF  RELIGION  AND  MORALS  AMONG 
THE  IROQUOIS  101 

REFLECTIONS  PROVOKED  THEREBY   102 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.  104 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    SETTING. 

INTRODUCTION. 

CENTURIES  ago  teachers  of  religion  explained  the  relation  of 
religion  and  morals  by  declaring  that,  as  God  had  revealed, 
the  way  to  salvation  lay  through  earthly  conduct.  They  ap 
proached  their  problem  from  a  distinctly  super-earthly  point 
of  view  and  they  worked  out  their  solution  by  means  of  the 
inspirational  method.  In  recent  years  both  a  different  point 
of  view  and  a  different  method  have  been  suggested  because  of 
the  results  obtained  in  such  fields  of  social  science  as  ethnology, 
anthropology  and  sociology.  Students  of  religion  and  of 
morals  have  become  aware  not  merely  of  the  fact  that,  whether 
civilized  or  uncivilized,  groups  other  than  their  own  have 
genuine  religions  and  moralities,  but  they  have  become  aware 
also  of  the  fact  that  the  religions  and  moralities  of  civilized 
peoples  have  been  influenced  by  the  religions  and  moralities  of 
such  other  groups.  Consequently  these  students  see  the  prob 
lem  from  a  point  of  view  characterized  best  perhaps  as  social, 
and  attempt  to  work  out  a  solution  by  means  of  the  historical 
and  comparative  methods.  Investigations  by  these  methods 
were  made  rarely  before  the  present  generation  because  the 
worker  in  the  field  of  religion  or  of  morals  has  had  to  depend 
upon  the  results  of  the  labors  of  his  fellows  in  the  allied 
fields  of  social  science ;  and  these  fellow-laborers  have  got  but 
recently  beyond  their  own  pioneer  days. 

It  comes  about  therefore  that  at  present  he  who  seeks  light 
upon  the  relation  of  religion  and  morals  can  find  little.  If  he 
turn  to  the  periodicals  he  may  meet  from  time  to  time  a  brief 
article  that  endeavors  to  support,  with  only  the  evidence  that 
a  few  pages  can  contain,  some  conclusions  regarding  the  rela 
tion  of  religion  and  morals  among  numerous,  as  well  as  vari 
ous,  human  groups.  The  scarcity  of  pertinent,  periodical 
articles  before  the  present  century  is  indicated  by  a  bibliog 
raphy  for  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  entitled 


2  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

"  Subject  Index  to  Periodical  Articles  on  Religion  "  and  com 
piled  by  E.  C.  Richardson.  Under  the  headings  "  Religion  " 
and  "  Ethics  "  are  mentioned  as  many  as  fifty  different  articles 
that  deal  with  the  relation  of  these  activities;  but  of  these  fifty 
only  two  deal  with  the  relation  in  that  detached,  scientific 
manner  now  so  necessary.  These  two  were  written  a  genera 
tion  ago  by  Professor  C.  H.  Toy,  one  on  "Ethics  and  Re 
ligion  "*  and  the  other  on  "  The  Religious  Element  in  Ethical 
Codes."2  Professor  Toy  discusses  briefly  the  relation  of  re 
ligion  and  morals  among  many  peoples  and  gives  some  evidence 
that  supports  his  views.  He  affirms  that  there  was  a  time 
when  religion  and  ethics  were  practically  identical,  and 
furthermore  that  religion  appears  in  the  field  of  ethics  as  a 
sanction.  These  two  conclusions  are  of  interest  because  subse 
quent  writers  repeat  them  in  order  often  to  deny  the  first  and 
generally  to  accept  the  second. 

If  the  inquirer  turns  to  the  periodicals  of  this  century  he 
will  find  some  noteworthy  articles.  In  the  American  Anthro 
pologist  for  19103  is  a  ten  page  article  by  A.  L.  Kroeber  on 
"  The  Morals  of  Uncivilized  People  "  of  which  three  pages  are 
given  to  the  problem  of  the  relation  of  religion  and  morals. 
To  Dr.  Kroeber  religion  seems  to  have  no  inherent  connection 
with  morals,  but  both  usually  become  associated  intimately; 
for  savages  who  have  definite  relations  with  the  gods  have 
also  definite  obligations.  They  have  things  to  do  or  not  to  do. 
They  have  obligations,  in  other  words,  analogous  to  those  we 
owe  our  fellows  and  therefore  have  obligations  that  are,  or 
are  very  similar  to,  ethical  obligations. 

In  Folk-Lore  for  1915*  appeared  an  article,  about  twice  as 
long  as  that  by  Dr.  Kroeber,  on  "The  Religious  Basis  of 
Social  Union."  In  this  summary  Dr.  F.  W.  Bussell  searches 
for  the  historical  basis  of  social  groupings  among  savages  and 
in  civilized  communities.  He  is  sure  that  a  study  of  social 
organizations  will  reveal  the  fact  that,  whatever  their  form  or 
conception,  in  the  past  there  has  lain  in  them  some  vaguely 
religious  thought  such  as  that  of  ancestral  spirits,  or  of  the 

^  Pop.  8ci.  I/on.,  XXXVI   (1889-90),  727-744. 
«/fif.  Jour.  Ethics,  I  (1890-91),  289-311. 
•  N.  8.,  XII,  437  sq. 

«  XXVI,  339-357. 


THE  SETTING.  3 

Earth  Mother  and  her  retinue,  or  of  the  personal  mana  em 
bodied  either  in  the  strong  man  of  the  crisis  or  in  the  son  of 
a  divine  house,  or  of  the  incarnate  deity  worshiped  in  the 
person  of  the  ruler,  or  finally  of  the  medieval  king  who  still 
was  held  to  be  God's  lieutenant.  But  Dr.  Bussell  notes  with 
foreboding  that  he  can  find  not  one  religious  idea  surviving  in 
the  body  politic  to-day,  which  idea  is  an  effective  element  or 
motive  of  social  harmony  and  cohesion. 

In  the  same  year  the  American  Anthropologist*  published 
an  article  by  Elsie  Clews  Parsons  entitled  "Links  between 
Religion  and  Morality  in  Early  Culture."  The  author  is  con 
tent  simply  to  identify  moral  with  social  conduct  and  to  give 
illustrations  of  the  supernatural  sanctions  attaching  to  such 
conduct.  These  illustrations,  from  savage  life  the  world  over, 
occupy  sixteen  pages  and  only  those  are  presented  which  bear 
witness  to  the  connection  of  religion  and  morality.  Some  of 
the  evidence  shows  how  supernatural  powers  are  invoked  or 
otherwise  sought  in  order  to  punish  or  otherwise  control  those 
who  run  counter  to  the  prevailing  rules  and  customs. 

These  articles,  at  any  rate,  assure  the  inquirer  that  the  con 
nection  between  religion  and  morals  is  regarded  as  a  real  con 
nection.  He  turns  hopefully  therefore  to  books  for  a  more 
detailed  picture  of  the  actual  relationships.  But  in  them  he 
finds  that  the  authors  have  slight  interest  in  his  problem,  that 
the  remarks  they  make  regarding  it  are,  as  in  the  periodicals, 
generalities  supported,  if  at  all,  by  a  few  pages  of  evidence 
culled  from  many  sources,  and  that  no  author  has  as  his  main 
theme  the  relation  of  religion  and  morals.  An  examination 
of  a  number  of  the  more  widely  known  books  on  religion  and 
on  morals  soon  makes  clear  the  little  that  the  modern  in 
vestigator,  with  his  scientific  attitude  and  his  new  methods, 
has  been  able  to  do  so  far  toward  solving  the  problem  and 
what  have  been  his  handicaps  and  shortcomings. 

Almost  a  generation  ago  the  relationship  was  discussed  by 
Wundt  in  a  hundred  pages  of  the  first  volume  of  his  "  Ethics."6 
His  chief  purpose  in  examining  religion  was  to  determine  its 
ethical  value.  Ethics  he  defined  in  the  terms  we  commonly 

5N.  s.,  XVII   (1915),  41  sq. 

639-148  passim.  Tr.  from  2d  German  edition  (1892)  by  Titchener, 
Gulliver  and  Washburn,  in  3  vols.  (London  and  New  York,  1897.) 


USl' 


IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

„,  namely,  virtues  and  vices.  Custom  consequently  must  be 
distinguished  from  morality.  Religion  he  defined  thus :  "  All 
ideas  and  feelings  are  religious  which  refer  to  an  ideal  exist 
ence."  In  order  to  determine  the  ethical  value  of  religion 
Wundt  found  it  necessary  in  his  one  hundred  pages  to  examine 
the  religion  and  morals  of  peoples  both  civilized  and  uncivil 
ized,  both  ancient  and  modern.  A  complete  presentation  was 
naturally  impossible,  and  he  contented  himself  with  stating  the 
results  of  his  study  accompanied  by  such  selections  from  the 
innumerable  data  as  were  consonant  with  these  results.  The 
following  summary  contains  his  main  conclusions. 

In  the  myths  not  only  are  religious,  ethical  and  other  ele 
ments  included  but  at  first  there  is  no  differentiation  of  one 
element  from  another.  In  time,  however,  the  religious  and 
ethical  elements  become  differentiated  and  the  ethical  elements 
in  turn  become  partially  detached  from  the  religious.  Con 
sequently  no  clearly  defined  distinction  can  be  made  between 
the  sphere  of  religion  and  that  of  morality,  and  the  connection 
between  the  two  spheres  varies  in  intimacy.  Mythology,  for 
example,  shows  on  the  one  hand  that  gods  and  heroes  possess 
evil  as  well  as  good  traits.  They  are  both  courageous  and 
cunning,  both  just  and  deceitful.  Such  evil  qualities  are  bound 
to  affect  the  ethical  side  of  religion.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
notion  of  deity  includes  not  only  the  thought  that  the  gods  are 
representatives  of  some  ideal  or  supersensible  order  but  also 
the  thought  that  they  are  patterns  or  ideals  for  men  to  copy. 
When  the  time  comes,  moreover,  that  men  think  of  ideal  moral 
exemplars  or  of  an  ideal  moral  order,  that  thought  will  find 
expression  in  religion.  When  does  that  time  come?  Nature 
gods  as  such  never  become  really  moral.  As  gods  of  lightning 
and  of  other  natural  phenomena  they  are  too  unlike  man  to 
affect  his  moral  qualities.  But  when  they  become  dissociated 
from  natural  phenomena  and  become  real  gods,  they  also 
become  the  "  exalted  exemplars  of  every  sort  of  valued  ability 
and  men  try  to  imitate  that  god-like  life."  It  is  obvious  there 
fore  that,  although  ethical  elements  may  be  found  in  any  form 
of  religion,  the  genuinely  ethical  religions  are  those  in  which 
the  ethical  has  become  predominant.  Such  religions  are  those 
of  civilization  and  are  initiated  by  a  single  personality  that 
becomes  the  moral  ideal. 


THE  SETTING.  5 

There  are  at  least  two  other  noteworthy  points  of  contact 
between  the  religious  and  the  moral,  according  to  Wundt. 
One  point  is  that  in  the  myth  may  be  found  ideas  of  reward 
and  punishment  which  are  meted  out  by  superhuman  powers, 
in  accordance  with  human  conduct.  This  belief  came  about 
as  the  notions  of  life  after  death  got  tied  up  with  ideas  of 
reward  and  punishment  and  with  a  heaven  and  a  hell,  so  that 
there  resulted,  through  the  strengthening  of  moral  impulses, 
the  desire  for  good  and  the  rejection  of  evil.  The  other  point 
is  that  the  idea  of  a  great  ancestor  as  an  exemplar  is  a  moral 
influence.  For  this  ancestor  worship,  really  filial  piety,  lies 
back  of  the  respect  paid  to  living  parents  and  to  the  aged. 
It  is  this  reverence  for  great  ancestors  that  evokes  a  sort  of 
religious  reverence  for  rulers  and  other  great  living  men.  In 
fact  there  may  result  the  actual  deification  of  the  ruler.  The 
religious  coloring  thus  given  in  the  first  stages  of  human 
development  to  the  relation  between  the  ruler  and  the  ruled 
contributes  to  the  'establishment  of  a  moral  order  in  society 
and  helps  to  evoke  those  impulses  that  manifest  themselves  in 
unselfish  devotion  to  the  good  of  others  and  to  some  general 
end. 

Wundt  summarized*  his  discussion  in  these  words:  "The 
farther  back  we  go,  the  more  completely  do  the  expressions  of 
the  moral  and  the  religious  feelings  coincide.  .  .  .  Wherever 
religion  has  meant  the  postulating  of  an  ideal  order  of  the 
universe,  the  strongest  religious  motives  have  been  furnished 
by  moral  requirements ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  a  firm  belief 
in  the  existence  of  this  ideal  world  has  exerted  an  equally 
powerful  influence  upon  the  development  of  the  moral  life  and 
of  the  moral  ideas,  partly  by  way  of  the  conception  of  reward 
and  punishment,  but  chiefly  through  the  creation  of  ideally 
perfect  moral  exemplars." 

Harold  Hoeffding  touched  upon  the  relation  of  religion  and 
morals  in  "  Philosophy  of  Keligion,"7  which  appeared  thirteen 
years  ago.  Like  Wundt  he  thought  of  ethics  in  terms  of 
virtues  and  vices.  He  believed  that  religion  in  its  lowest  forms 
has  no  ethical  significance,  for  the  deities  are  powers  on  which 
man  depends  but  are  not  patterns  of  conduct  or  administrators 
of  an  ethical  world-order.  Nevertheless,  out  of  purely  natural 

7  Tr.  by  B.  E.  Meyer.     (London,  1906.) 


6  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

forces  that  could  be  defied  or  evaded  the  deities  become  ethical 
powers  that  men  could  not  or  would  not  defy,  and  so  the  great 
aims  of  human  life  become  the  aims  of  the  gods. 

Reference  often  is  made  to  three  American  writers,  Ames, 
Leuba  and  King,  whose  books  on  religion  appeared  a  few  years 
after  that  by  Hoeffding.  E.  S.  Ames  in  "Psychology  of 
Religious  Experience"8  took  up  the  problem  long  enough  to 
say  that  when  custom  attains  moral  character,  morality  being 
defined  in  terms  similar  to  those  used  by  Wundt  and  Hoeffding, 
religion  centers  in  moral  ideals  and  in  rational  methods  of 
control.  This  process  of  ethicizing  religion  develops  along 
with  the  practical  and  ethical  development  of  the  race. 

J.  H.  Leuba  in  "  Psychological  Study  of  Religion  "9  defined 
religion  and  morals  more  broadly  than  did  the  writings  ex 
amined  above.  Religion  is  "  that  part  of  human  experience  in 
which  man  feels  himself  in  relation  with  powers  of  psychic 
nature,  usually  personal  powers,  and  makes  use  of  them." 
Regarding  morals  he  says,  "The  social  life  is  the  matrix  of 
moral  sentiments."  Leuba  is  of  the  opinion  that  among 
savages  it  is  common  to  find  moral  ideas  and  religious  beliefs 
independent,  although  tribal  customs  and  religion  are  con 
nected  closely  since  the  gods  help  to  enforce  customs.  "  Moral 
ity  and  religion  do  not  need  each  other  in  order  to  come  into 
existence,  but,  when  they  have  appeared,  religious  beliefs  are 
speedily  called  upon  for  the  gratification  of  moral  needs." 

Irving  King  in  "  Development  of  Religion  "10  devotes  more 
space  to  the  topic  of  the  relation  of  religion  and  morals  than 
is  given  in  any  of  the  other  books  so  far  mentioned,  except 
that  by  Wundt.  He  examines,  in  fifteen  of  the  eighteen  pages 
that  make  up  his  eleventh  chapter,  the  personal  morality  of 
the  Australians  in  order  to  support  his  belief  that  primitive 
custom  has  a  positive  moral  worth,  because  it  may  furnish  the 
raw  material  for  the  higher  conceptions  of  conduct  which  are 
of  such  moment  for  the  history  of  morals  and  religion.  He 
concludes  that  "  It  is  safe  to  say  that,  in  the  case  of  religion 
at  least,  the  love  of  justice,  mercy  and  human  kindliness  in 
general  would  never  have  developed  as  the  expression  of  the 

«  Boston  and  New  York,  1910. 
•  New  York,  1912. 
10  New  York,   1910. 


THE  SETTING.  7 

will  of  a  deity  except  as  they  appeared  in  the  special  relations 
of  human  life." 

The  two  dozen  pages  on  the  relation  of  religion  and  morals 
scattered  through  the  first  part  of  Dewey  and  Tufts'  "  Ethics  "J1 
are  suggestive.  Ethics  they  define  as  "the  science  that  deals 
with  conduct,  in  so  far  as  this  is  considered  right  or  wrong, 
good  or  bad/'  As  their  discussion  of  morality  advances  from 
that  of  uncivilized  groups  onward,  religion  in  each  case  re 
ceives  attention.  In  speaking  of  life  among  uncivilized  groups 
they  voice  the  opinion  that  it  is  religion  that  gives  the  group 
"  its  highest  authority,  its  fullest  value,  its  deepest  sacredness." 
Eeligion,  then,  is  bound  up  closely  with  the  group  mores,  and 
a  new  religion  by  its  new  demands  may  change  the  concep 
tion  of  conduct.  In  fact,  as  one  studies  various  peoples  it 
becomes  apparent  that  religion  is  often  the  agency  for  evoking 
certain  characteristics  of  the  moral.  Religion  may  emphasize 
the  inward  aspect  of  the  moral.  Religion  may  make  clear  the 
distinction  between  the  higher  or  spiritual  and  the  lower 
values  of  life.  Religion  may  furnish  the  divine  characters  that 
become  the  ideals  of  conduct  in  this  life.  Among  the  Hebrews, 
for  example,  one  finds  that  the  moral  ideals  became  a  part  of 
religion  and  thus  their  religion  was  ethicized.  Their  prophets 
were  also  moral  reformers.  On  the  other  hand,  among  the 
Greeks  religion  became  set  to  a  great  extent  while  the  moral 
found  a  way  of  its  own.  Among  us  religion  is  confronted 
with  a  problem.  Shall  religion  take  on  the  newer  ethical 
values:  the  scientific  spirit  that  seeks  to  know  the  truth,  the 
enhanced  value  of  human  worth  and  the  consequent  demands 
for  higher  types  of  social  justice? 

In  the  concluding  paragraph  of  Part  One  the  authors  char 
acterize  the  standpoints  of  religion  and  morals.  The  religious 
deals  with  man  as  related  to  the  cosmos  or  to  unseen  powers, 
the  relations  being  by  kinship,  or  as  subject,  or  as  seeking  more 
perfect  fulfilment.  The  religious  establishes  fixed  laws  and 
sets  up  the  awful  choice  between  hell  and  heaven.  But  moral 
ity  deals  with  men  and  their  relations.  The  moral  law  can  be 
approved,  that  is,  criticized,  and  is  stated  in  terms  of  rights 
and  wrongs,  goods  and  evils.  Morality  sets  up  principles  and 

11  London  and  New  York,  1913. 


g  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

not  irrevocable  laws  and  it  reshapes  ideals,  constantly  working 
them  out  in  conduct  and  rationalizing  the  social  order. 

It  is  interesting  to  pass  from  this  text-book  on  morals  to 
L.  T.  Hobhouse's  original  investigation  in  the  same  field, 
"  Morals  in  Evolution."12  The  reader  becomes  convinced  that 
this  study  is  superior  to  any  other  of  the  kind.  Hobhouse's 
conception  of  morality  has  a  breadth  that  is  consonant  with  the 
present  tendency  to  define  morals  in  terms  of  the  attitudes, 
actions  and  organized  practices  of  the  people  or  peoples 
studied,  and  not  simply  in  terms  of  virtues  and  vices.  Two 
attributes  are  essential  to  morality  according  to  Hobhouse,  the 
one  being  the  "conception  of  the  Good"  (p.  18)  and  the  other 
being  "the  regulation  of  life"  (p.  613).  His  definition  of 
religion,  unfortunately,  is  such  as  to  preclude  his  recognition 
of  some  of  the  subtle  connections  between  it  and  morals.  Re 
ligion  in  its  lowest  forms,  he  says,  is  animism.  Magic,  which 
he  defines  in  the  now  familiar  terms  of  Frazer,  is  to  be  marked 
off  from  religion.  Hobhouse  illustrates  how  important  the 
relation  of  religion  and  morals  is  felt  to  be,  for  he  finds  it 
necessary  to  devote  one  hundred  and  sixty  pages  (365-526),  or 
about  one  quarter  of  his  book  on  morals,  to  the  religions  of 
peoples  in  times  past  and  present  and  in  conditions  of  civiliza 
tion  and  of  barbarism  in  order  to  find  the  answer  given  by 
religion  to  the  question,  Whence  comes  the  notion  of  moral 
obligation?  Of  course  these  pages  can  contain  only  a  summary 
of  the  results  of  such  an  investigation.  A  dozen  pages  suffice 
to  set  forth  beliefs  and  practices  connected  with  souls,  among 
civilized  and  uncivilized  peoples  on  all  the  continents.  The 
next  half-dozen  pages  place  in  view  the  yet  troublesome  sub 
ject  of  magic.  The  supernormal  and  the  mysterious  are  ex 
amined  hastily  in  a  few  pages.  Matter  relating  to  "Myth, 
Culture,  Heroes  and  Creators  "  finds  sufficient  space  in  another 
half-dozen  pages.  The  next  dozen  present  the  polytheism  of 
the  ancients.  Then,  in  a  chapter  of  two  score  pages,  an  at 
tempt  is  made  to  determine  the  ethical  conceptions  underlying 
magic,  animism  and  polytheism.  Two  additional  chapters 
complete  the  treatment,  one  dealing  with  Buddhism,  Brahman- 
ism  and  Taoism,  the  other  with  monotheism — Judaism  and 
Christianity. 

"3d  edition.     (London,  1915.) 


THE  SETTING.  9 

In  presenting  these  subjects  Hobhouse  makes  a  number  of 
remarks  concerning  the  relation  of  religion  and  morals. 
Among  the  so-called  primitive  races  customs  are  obeyed  be 
cause  breaches  mean  misfortune  for  the  whole  community,  pos 
sibly  since  retribution  is  a  consequence  of  wrong-doing.  Such 
misfortune  may  be  sent  by  a  spirit  that  was  wronged  by  the 
breach  of  the  custom.  So  one  finds  that  in  the  "  lowest  grades 
of  ethical  thought  the  sanction  of  conduct  is  found  in  taboos 
and  other  magical  terrors  or  in  the  fear  of  vindictive  and  re 
sentful  spirits."  Among  the  peoples  whose  thought  and  con 
duct  are  along  these  lines,  magic  has  no  moral  purpose  and 
the  animistic  spirits  are  unmoral  essentially.  They  engender 
in  man  mere  dread  of  vengeance  so  that  social  rules  generally 
speaking  are  not  conceived  clearly  as  moral  obligations.  A 
forward  step  is  found  to  have  been  taken  among  those  peoples 
that  have  real  gods,  for  they  generally  are  connected  definitely 
with  ethics — they  punish  the  guilty  for  their  guilt,  and  so  on. 
But  even  here  ethical  thinking  is  unclear  since  the  gods  them 
selves  may  do  wrong.  Monotheistic  religions,  with  their  all- 
good  god  and  genuine  ethical  ideals,  are  really  spiritual  re 
ligions  and  bring  newer  ethical  conceptions.  They  range 
humility,  forgiveness,  benevolence  and  brotherhood  over 
against  pride,  resentment,  mere  love  of  kin,  and  interest  mainly 
or  solely  in  family  life. 

Recently  there  appeared  in  the  field  of  religion  a  remark 
able  study  by  Emile  Durkheim  entitled  "  Elementary  Forms 
of  the  Religious  Life."13  Morality  is  not  the  predominant 
interest  in  this  study  and  he  does  not,  in  consequence,  define  it. 
Religion  he  does  examine  and  define  with  much  care.  After 
two  score  pages  of  discussion  concerning  the  nature  of  religion 
the  following  is  set  down :  "  A  religion  is  a  unified  system  of 
beliefs  and  practices  relative  to  sacred  things,  that  is  to  say, 
things  set  apart  and  forbidden — beliefs  and  practices  which 
unite  into  one  single  moral  community  called  a  Church,  all 
those  who  adhere  to  them."  Durkheim's  object  is  to  determine 
the  origin  and  nature  of  religion.  To  support  the  conclusions 
he  reaches,  he  wishes  to  examine  a  really  primitive  religion. 
He  arrives  finally  at  the  opinion  that  the  most  primitive  re 
ligion  is  totemism  which  is  the  religion  of  the  clan,  to  him  the 

is  Tr.  by  J.  W.  Swain.     (London  and  New  York,  1915.) 


10  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

simplest  social  organization  known.  His  investigation  resolves 
itself  therefore  into  a  study  of  totemism  and  the  clan,  and  is 
carried  on  among  the  Australians  since  among  them  both  insti 
tutions  were  developed  highly. 

Durkheim  has  some  striking  statements  to  make  regarding 
the  relation  of  religion  and  morals  (particularly  pp.  167-226 
passim,  387,  420).     He  concludes  that  religion  and  morality 
among  these  savages  are  identical.     The  social  organization  in 
which  totemism  obtains  is  bound  up  with  religion  because  the 
members  of  a  single  clan  are  united  by  three  essentially  re 
ligious  bonds:  they  have  the  same  name  and  the  same  emblem, 
they  believe  that  they  have  the  same  relations  with  the  same 
categories  of  things,  and  they  practice  the  same  rites.    In  a 
word,  they  participate  in  the  same  totemic  cult.     Moreover, 
the  totem  is  the  source  of  the  moral  life  of  the  clan  since  the 
beings  of  the  same  totem  are  bound  together  morally  in  duties 
of  assistance,  vendetta  and  so  on.     These  duties  constitute  kin 
ship.     Durkheim  then  seeks  the  principle  underlying  totemism 
and  discovers  that  the  notion  of  mana  is  the  root  from  which 
totemism  has  grown.     Having  gone  so  far  he  grapples  for 
many  pages  with  the  problem :  What  is  it  that  makes  religion 
obligatory,  that  is,  what  form  of  the  moral  authority  inheres 
in  religion?     He  concludes  that  religious  forces  are   moral 
because  they  are  made  up  entirely  of  the  impressions  which  this 
moral  being,  the  group,  arouses  in  those  other  moral  beings,  its 
individual  members.     The  religious  forces  do  not  translate  the 
manner  in  which  physical  things  affect  the  senses,  but  they  do 
translate  the  way  in  which  the  collective  consciousness  acts 
upon  individual  consciousnesses.     Hence  their  authority  is  one 
form  of  the  moral  ascendancy  of  society  over  its  members. 
Moreover,  religious  forces  are  also  conceived  of  under  material 
forms  and  therefore  could  not  fail  to  be  regarded  as  related 
closely  to  material  things.     Religious  forces,  then,  dominate 
two  worlds.    They  reside  in  men,  but  at  the  same  time  they 
are  the  vital  principles  of  things;  they  animate  minds  and  dis 
cipline  them,  and  they  also  make  plants  grow  and  animals 
reproduce.     "It   is   this   double    nature   which   has   enabled 
religion  to  be  like  the  womb  from  which  come  all  the  leading 
germs  of  civilization."     Since  religion  has  been  made  to  em 
brace  all  of  reality — the  physical  world  as  well  as  the  moral — 


THE  SETTING.  11 

the  forces  that  move  bodies  as  well  as  those  that  move  minds 
have  been  conceived  in  a  religious  form.  "That  is  how  the 
most  diverse  methods  and  practices,  both  those  that  make  pos 
sible  the  continuation  of  the  moral  life  (law,  morals,  beaux- 
arts)  and  those  serving  the  material  life  (the  natural,  technical 
and  practical  sciences),  are  either  directly  or  indirectly  derived 
from  religion"  (p.  223). 

Several  of  the  above  mentioned  writers  hold  a  number  of 
conclusions  in  common.  All  agree  that  a  clearly  defined  dis 
tinction  between  the  religious  sphere  and  the  moral  can  not  be 
made.  Although  a  few  of  them  are  of  the  opinion  that  there 
was  once  a  close  identity  of  the  two  spheres,  most  of  them  are 
in  agreement  with  Leuba's  thought  that  religion  and  morals 
probably  had  independent  origins,  but  have  become  inter 
related.  Distinct  as  may  have  been  the  viewpoints  from  which 
the  writers  looked  for  evidence  of  the  interconnection  of  the 
moral  and  the  religious,  the  conclusions  they  reached  have  been 
complementary  rather  than  contradictory.  None  denies  that  a 
people  who  have  "  real  gods "  also  have  ethical  obligations 
that  are  sanctioned  by  these  gods.  Bussell  approached  the 
problem  not  from  the  side  of  deities  but  from  that  of  social 
organization.  Nevertheless  he  is  sure  that  he  recognizes 
notions  concerning  such  organization  that  are  essentially  re 
ligious  notions;  and  his  opinion  is  acceptable  to  Durkheim, 
Dewey  and  Tufts,  and  others.  Yet  another  approach  was 
made  by  way  of  the  conduct  of  individuals.  Fully  half  the 
writers  have  stated  that  conduct  is  sanctioned  frequently  by 
supernatural  powers.  It  is  established  with  some  defmiteness 
then,  that  from  the  side  of  morals  the  conduct  of  individuals 
often  shows  religious  influence  in  the  form  of  belief  or  of  sanc 
tion  for  the  conduct;  and  that  from  the  side  of  religion 
genuine  deities  are  concerned  not  only  with  religious  affairs 
but  also  with  earthly  conduct,  since  they  approve  or  disap 
prove  of  forms  of  behavior. 

The  writers  disagree  upon  one  matter.  Wundt,  Hoeffding 
and  Hobhouse  say  that  in  the  "  animistic  stage  "  gods  are  not 
moral;  Durkheim  and  others  do  not  accept  that  statement. 
This  difference  in  opinion  is  mentioned  because  it  indicates  the 
enormous  handicap  under  which  these  pioneer  investigators 
labored.  None  had  at  his  disposal  detailed  studies  of  the  rela- 


12  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

tion'of  religion  and  morals  among  peoples  in  many  times  and 
places.  The  impulse  on  the  part  of  these  investigators,  who  . 
have  not  been  interested  primarily  in  this  relationship,  never 
theless  to  make  some  track  across  the  virgin  field  emphasizes 
the  importance  of  the  problem.  It  must  become  obvious  that 
nothing  final  can  be  done  until  there  exists  a  series  of  studies, 
based  upon  investigations  among  peoples  everywhere  and  in 
every  time,  of  the  actual  relationship  obtaining  between  re 
ligions  and  moralities.  If  there  be  truth  in  that  modern  con 
ception,  historical  continuity,  a  knowledge  of  the  relationships 
historically  is  one  essential  element  in  the  study  of  the  rela 
tionship  here  among  ourselves.  Fortunately  delay  in  acquir 
ing  such  a  series  of  studies  is  no  longer  necessary,  since  it  is 
now  possible  both  to  find  satisfactory  working  definitions  of 
religion  and  of  morals  and  to  obtain  with  little  difficulty  the 
necessary  data  relative  to  conditions  and  life  among  peoples 
on  all  the  continents  and  often  relative  to  peoples  of  long  ago. 
It  is  hoped  that  this  examination  of  the  relation  of  religion 
and  morals  among  the  Iroquois  will  initiate  such  a  series  of 
studies. 

Such  an  investigation,  to  be  of  value,  first  must  determine 
the  nature  and  amount  of  evidence  that  is  at  hand,  and 
secondly  must  acquaint  itself  with  the  setting  in  which  Iro- 
quois  religion  and  morals  functioned,  that  is,  with  the  kind  of 
country  the  Iroquois  lived  in,  the  kind  of  life  they  led,  and 
the  ways  in  which  they  controlled  themselves.  Upon  such  a 
basis  a  study  of  value  can  be  made  of  the  Iroquois  religion, 
the  changes  in  it  that  occurred  since  the  advent  of  the  Whites, 
and  their  moral  life  as  touched  by  religion  and  as  independent 
of  it. 

THE  EVIDENCE. 

The  life  of  the  Iroquois  before  the  sixteenth  century  is 
known  only  in  so  far  as  it  can  be  inferred  from  his  myths, 
language,  practices  and  beliefs  of  recent  times.  These,  in  later 
centuries,  have  been  recorded  more  or  less  accurately  and  com 
pletely  by  both  Indians  and  Whites.  In  the  second  quarter 
of  the  sixteenth  century  Jacques  Cartier,  in  the  memoir  of  his 
explorations,  described  a  visit  to  an  Indian  community  that 
probably  was  Iroquoian.  Almost  three-quarters  of  a  century 


THE  SETTING.  13 

later  Champlain  recorded  contact  with  the  Iroquois.  The 
latter's  contemporary,  the  lawyer  Lescarbot,  published  a  his 
tory  in  three  volumes  that  presented  the  information  then 
current  concerning  New  France  and  included  several  scores  of 
pages  relating  to  the  Iroquois  and  kindred  tribes.  A  genera 
tion  later  the  cleric  Sagard  likewise  published  a  history  of 
French  America,  the  dominant  theme  of  which  was  missionary 
work  since  1615.  In  Sagard's  time  a  Dutch  lawyer,  Van  der 
Donck,  visited  the  New  Netherland  and  wrote  a  description  of 
it.  Unfortunately  his  descriptions  of  the  Indians  in  Dutch 
America  were  the  least  valuable  portions  of  his  book.  Another 
generation  elapsed  before  a  European  again  recorded  contact 
with  the  Iroquois.  A  settler  in  the  middle  colonies,  Green- 
halgh  by  name,  visited  the  Iroquois  country  and  wrote  a  brief 
description  of  the  Iroquois  village,  population  and  house.  His 
few  pages  of  observations  in  1677  have  proved  to  be  the  most 
authentic  of  any  yet  referred  to.  At  the  close  of  the  century 
two  Frenchmen  visited  Canada,  The  first  to  arrive  was  a 
young  Baron,  La  Hontan,  who  became  an  officer  in  the  French 
colonial  army  in  1683  and  remained  in  the  country  for  ten 
years.  His  lengthy  account  of  the  new  world  included  im 
portant  references  to  Iroquois  customs  and  characteristics 
which,  however,  have  been  accepted  cautiously  because  of  the 
young  soldier's  exuberant  imagination.  His  fellow-country 
man  Bacqueville  de  La  Potherie  arrived  about  three  years  after 
La  Hontan  had  returned  to  France,  and  made  a  voyage  south 
ward  along  the  eastern  coast.  His  visit  resulted  in  a  history 
of  North  America  in  four  volumes,  the  third  of  which  dealt 
with  the  Iroquois. 

The  written  evidence  contributed  in  the  eighteenth  century 
had  at  least  twice  the  volume  of  that  of  the  preceding  two 
centuries  and  was  more  definite  and  trustworthy.  In  the 
summer  of  1720  the  Jesuit  Charlevoix  arrived  in  America  and 
began  a  series  of  letters  about  his  voyage  to  North  America 
that  has  been  of  great  value  to  the  student  of  Iroquois  life. 
Later  he  got  out  a  history  of  New  France  based  mainly  upon 
the  reports  made  by  the  Jesuit  missionaries.  At  the  time  that 
Charlevoix  was  writing  his  letters  another  French  churchman, 
Lafitau,  was  collecting  information,  largely  from  Jesuit 
sources,  concerning  North  American  Indians.  His  two  large, 


14  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

illustrated  volumes  together  with  Charlevoix's  letters  about 
his  voyage  to  North  America  and  the  voluminous  relations  or 
reports  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  themselves,  were  the  best 
works  dealing  with  the  Iroquois  that  appeared  during  the 
century.  In  the  British  colonies  men  were  becoming  inter 
ested  in  gathering  information  about  the  Indians,  and  a  num 
ber  of  accounts  survive  that  deal  with  the  Iroquois.  In  that 
third  decade  in  which  Lafitau  and  Charlevoix  wrote,  an  Eng 
lishman  of  the  colony  of  New  York,  Golden  by  name,  who  had 
the  benefit  of  close  contact  with  the  Iroquois,  published  a  his 
tory  chiefly  of  their  relations  with  Europeans.  The  second 
volume  contained  the  transactions  that  took  place  at  many 
councils  and  shed  considerable  light  upon  Iroquois  customs. 
A  generation  slipped  by  before  another  Englishman  visited  the 
Iroquois  and  wrote  an  account  of  what  he  saw.  The  famous 
John  Bartram  visited  them  almost  seventy  years  later  than 
Greenhalgh  and  supplemented  the  latter's  description  of  Iro 
quois  villages  by  reliable  notes  on  the  same  subject.  After  the 
close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  there  appeared  a  history  of 
the  mission  of  the  United  Brethren  among  the  North  Ameri- 
-^can  Indians,  written  by  the  missionary  Loskiel  and  containing 
first  hand  and  reliable  information  about  the  life  and  the 
habits  of  the  Indians  of  the  middle  colonies.  Working  in  the 
same  field  at  the  same  time  was  the  missionary  Heckewelder. 
Following  the  close  of  the  French  and  Indian  War  he  spent 
half  a  century  among  the  Indians  and  then  wrote  an  account 
of. the  Indian  Nations  that  has  fine  descriptions  of  customs 
and  characteristics,  including  those  of  the  Iroquois. 

The  written  evidence  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen 
turies  concerning  the  Iroquois  was  not  only  scant  but  usually 
appeared  at  intervals  of  a  generation  or  more.  This  unfortu 
nate  condition  would  have  been  true  in  large  measure  for  the 
eighteenth  century  were  it  not  for  two  great  collections  that 
span  the  intervals.  The  first  of  these,  the  eighteen  volumes  of 
documents  relating  to  New  York  colonial  and  state  history, 
appeared  as  two  separate  works  about  the  middle  of  the  nine 
teenth  century.  Most  of  the  documents  dealt  with  the  rela 
tions  of  the  Iroquois  and  the  colonists  and  contained  little  of 
value  to  a  student  of  religion  and  morals.  From  time  to  time, 
however,  appears  a  document  bearing  upon  a  council,  some 


THE  SETTING.  15 

social  custom,  agricultural  methods,  or  the  Indian  attitude 
toward  drunkenness,  that  repays  the  tedious  search  through 
the  many  hundreds  of  pages.     The  other  collection  has  been 
referred  to  several  times.     The  Jesuit  Fathers  were  in  contact   \ 
with  the  Iroquois  from  about  1640  almost  to '  the-  French  and     ) 
Indian    War.     These    patient    and    long-suffering    men    left 
behind  them  a  record,  in  their  humble  reports  of  labors  in 
eastern  Canada  and  the  land  to  the  south,  that  is  second  to 
none  yet  mentioned. 

From  the  time  that  Heckewelder  terminated  his  missionary 
work  until  there  appeared  the  next  record  of  an  observer 
among  the  Iroquois,  a  half  century  elapsed.  Then  followed  a 
different  type  of  investigation  and  a  different  type  of  worker. 
The  missionary  gave  way  to  the  trained  ethnologist,  and  the 
latter's  reports  superseded  those  of  the  former.  One  of  the 
earliest  of  such  reports  was  by  Schoolcraft  who  published 
some  notes  on  the  Iroquois  in  1846.  These  notes,  not  infre 
quently  unreliable,  marked  the  beginning  of  two  decades  of 
activity  among  students  of  the  Iroquois.  In  1849  J.  V.  H. 
Clark  got  out  two  volumes  on  the  Iroquois  entitled  "  Onon- 
daga,"  the  first  of  which  contained  many  accounts  of  what  he 
saw  among  them.  Two  years  later  appeared  Morgan's 
"  League  of  the  Iroquois,"  the  classic  on  the  subject.  A  trained 
and  enthusiastic  ethnologist,  he  studied  Iroquois  life  in  his  day 
and  wrote  an  account  of  it  that  is  indispensable.  Although 
his  enthusiasm  often  carried  him  away,  his  statement  of  what 
he  himself  saw  and  heard  is  highly  reliable.  At  the  same  time 
there  appeared  Seaver's  biography  of  an  adopted  Iroquois, 
Mary  Jemison,  which  shed  much  light  upon  Iroquois  customs 
about  1850.  Just  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  W.  L.  Stone 
published  fine  biographies  of  two  eminent  Iroquois,  Joseph 
Brant  and  Red  Jacket.  Two  years  later  Brinton  published  . 
some  New  World  Myths  that  included  some  of  the  myths  of 
the  Iroquois. 

Another  barren  decade  then  passed.  It  was  the  last  inter 
ruption  in  the  stream  of  evidence.  The  year  1880  inaugurated  _j__ 
activity  among  students  of  the  Iroquois  that  has  gone  on  ever 
since.  The  Bureau  of  Ethnology  has  promoted  interest,  and 
almost  a  score  of  trained  investigators  have  written  on  the 
Iroquois.  Among  the  older  writers  must  be  mentioned  Hale,  - 


16  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

whose  invaluable  "Iroquois  Book  of  Rites"  appeared  in  1883. 

"Since  that  ninth  decade  J.  N.  B.  Hewitt  has  contributed  many 
important  articles  dealing  with  various  phases  of  Iroquois  life. 
His  studies  of  the  social  and  political  aspects  of  the  League 
of  the  Iroquois  have  been  especially  valuable.  Shortly  after 

,  Hewitt's  first  articles  appeared,  Arthur  C.  Parker,  himself  an 
Iroquois,  began  to  publish  studies  of  a  variety  of  Iroquois 
activities  so  authoritative  in  character  as  to  place  him  in  the 
foremost  rank  of  the  students  of  that  people.  For  more  than 
a  score  of  years  both  Hewitt  and  Parker  have  been  gathering 
an  extensive  mass  of  material  concerning  them,  a  great  part  of 
which  still  awaits  publication.  These  writers  of  the  last  gen 
eration  or  more  have  recorded  the  myths,  beliefs,  institutions 
and  other  elements,  that  made  up  the  life  of  the  Iroquois  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  on  the  whole  with  such  accuracy  and 
completeness  that  they  furnish  a  body  of  information  far  su 
perior  to  any  that  preceded. 

MAIN  FEATURES  OF  IROQUOIS  LIFE. 

The  Dutch  and  the  French  found  five  tribes  of  Iroquois 
settled  in  villages  in  what  is  now  New  York  State.  About 
Lake  Onondaga  were  the  members  of  the  central  tribe,  the 
Onondagas ;  to  the  west  of  them  were  the  Cayugas  while  to  the 
east  were  the  Oneidas;  in  the  region  below  Lake  Ontario  and 
east  of  Lake  Erie  were  the  Senecas;  west  of  the  Hudson  and 
Lake  Champlain  were  the  Mohawks.  Later,  in  1715,  the  Tus- 
caroras  settled  on  Oneida  territory.14  The  land  of  the  Iro- 

n  The  movements  of  the  Iroquois  before  the  seventeenth  century 
are  not  known  accurately.  The  following  give  a  fairly  complete  dis 
cussion  of  the  matter: 

EARLY  EXPLORERS  AND  WRITERS. 
Baxter:  Memoirs  of  Jacques  Cartier,  160-172. 
Lafitau:  Moeurs  des  sauvaycs,  I,  101-102. 
Charlevoix:  History  .  .  .  of  New  France,  II,  72-73. 
Voyage  to  North  America,  I,  167-171. 

LATER  WRITERS. 
Beauchamp:  "Origin  ...  of  the  N.  Y.  Iroquois,"  in  Am.  A.  and  O. 

Jour.,  VIII,  358-366 ;  IX,  37-39 ;  XVI,  61-69. 
Converse :  Myths  .  .  .  of  the  .  .  .  Iroquois,  128. 
Douglas:  "Consolidation  of  the  Iroquoian  Confederacy,"  in  Am.  Geog. 

Soc.  Jour.,  XXIX,  41-54. 


THE  SETTING.  17 

quois  was  marked  off  rather  definitely  by  the  eastern  Great 
Lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence  River  in  the  west  and  north,  and 
by  the  rivers,  lakes  and  hills  in  eastern  New  York.  To  a 
people  capable  of  them  this  region  favored  intercourse,  friend 
ship  and  union,  since  a  string  of  streams  and  lakes  connected 
the  east  with  the  west  and  obstacles  to  travel  were  few.  The 
country  was  a  forest  region,  abundantly  watered,  fertile  and 
well  supplied  with  the  animal  and  vegetable  life  of  a  temperate 
clime.  The  woods  offered  bear,  deer  and  squirrel,  and  nuts, 
fruits  and  edible  roots;  the  streams  were  filled  with  fish;  the 
open  spaces  by  their  fertility  made  maize  culture  simple.  The 
home  country,  then,  furnished  a  goodly  measure  of  protection 
against  possible  invaders,  favored  intercommunication  and 
therefore  union  among  the  neighbors  within  it  and  offered  fair 
reward  to  savage  labor.15 

The  Iroquois  were  a  people  who  could  and  did  use  these 
natural  advantages.  The  men  trapped  and  hunted  and  fished ; 
the  women — the  very  children,  too — kept  house,  gathered  nuts, 
grubbed  roots  and,  most  important  of  all,  raised  maize,  beans, 
squashes,  melons,  pumpkins,  fruits,  tobacco  and  sunflowers  for 
oil.16  Our  common  notions  of  savage  life  are  embarrassed  and 
disconcerted  by  the  amount  of  extensive  farming  these  "  mere 
savages"  did.  The  Senecas  cultivated  fields  in  the  Genesee 
Valley  for  miles  of  its  length.  General  Sullivan  described  the 

Hale :  "  Fall  of  Hochelaga,"  in  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  VII,  1-14. 

Iroquois  Book  of  Rites,  19  and  Appendix,  note  c. 
Hewitt:  "Formation  of  ...  League  of  the  Iroquois,"  in  Am.  Anthr., 

VII,  61-67.     In  Hodge's  Handbook,  I,  615-616,  618. 
Morgan:  League  of  the  Iroquois,  II  (notes  16-21),  187-192. 
Parker:  "Origin  of  the  Iroquois,"  in  Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.  XVIII  (1916), 

479-483,  503-507. 

Stites :  Economics  of  the  Iroquois,  13-14. 
Stone :  Red  Jacket,  106-112,  116-119. 

MYTHS. 

Cusick:  .  .  .  History  of  the  Six  Nations,  11-14,  53-59. 
Schoolcraft:  Notes  on  the  Iroquois,  chs.  II,  III. 

IB  Good  descriptions  will  be  found  in :  Charlevoix :  History,  II,  188- 
192.  Jesuit  Relations,  XLIII  (1656-1657),  ch.  XI.  Van  der  Donck: 
Description  of  the  New  Netherland,  135-189. 

More  recent  accounts  are  given  by :  Morgan,  u.  s.,  I,  ch.  2.  Stites, 
u.  s.,  Pt.  I,  ch.  I. 

is  Parker:  Iroquois  Uses  of  Maize,  19-20.     Stites,  15-19. 


18  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

town  of  Genesee  in  Revolutionary  days  as  one  containing  one 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  houses,  mostly  large  and  elegant, 
well  located  and  "  almost  encircled  with  clear  flat  land  extend 
ing  a  number  of  miles ;  over  which  extensive  fields  of  corn  were 
waving,  together  with  every  kind  of  vegetable  .  .  ,"17  The 
hunting  season  was  the  winter,  the  hunting  preserve  the  land 
from  Maryland  north  and  Ohio  east.  Fishing  time  followed 
that  of  hunting  and  extended  into  the  summer.  Each  of  the 
other  occupations — berry  picking,  planting,  harvesting,  nut 
gathering,  etc. — was  pursued  in  its  season.  The  heavy  work 
such  as  a  big  harvest,  the  felling  of  trees,  the  clearing  of  sites, 
the  building  of  houses,  fell  to  the  men.  They,  too,  usually 
made  the  tools  of  production.  The  actual  planting  and  caring 
for  grain  and  vegetables  were  done  by  groups  of  women.  A 
matron  was  chosen  to  act  as  overseer,  and  the  whole  party 
planted,  cultivated  and  harvested  under  her  direction.  The 
fact  that  women  farmed  in  groups  was  not  a  peculiarity,  for 
hunters  and  fishermen  likewise  worked  in  parties.  Because 
they  knew  only  extensive  agriculture  soil  exhaustion  occurred 
about  every  twelve  years.  This  fact,  in  addition  to  the  nigh 
total  consumption  of  accessible  wood  fuel  in  the  same  time, 
necessitated  a  migration  and  the  raising  of  a  new  village.18 

Although  it  has  varied  from  time  to  time,  the  total  Iroquois 
population  has  been  and  is  about  fifteen  thousand,  of  which  the 

IT  Quoted  by  Parker,  loc.  cit.,  20. 

"Morgan,  II  (notes  88-93),  251-253. 
Parker :  loc.  cit.,  21-36  passim,  gives  a  full  discussion  of  agriculture 

and  includes  photographs.     Compare  what  he  says  with  Mrs.  Jemi- 

son's  account  of  her  work,  given  in  Seaver:  Mary  Jemison,  69-73. 
Stites,  Pt.  I,  chs.  II,  III. 

Older  writers  discussed  the  subject : 
Bacqueville  de  La  Potherie :  Histoirc,  III,  18-20. 
Heckewelder:  History  .  .  .  of  the  Indian  Nations,  ch.  XVI. 
Charlevoix:  Voyage  to  N.  A.,  II,  91-94. 
Loskiel:  History  of  the  Mission  .  .  .  among  the  Indians,  Pt.  I,  chs. 

VI,  VII. 
Lafitau:  Moeurs,  II,  75-81,  86,  107-112,  336-338. 

On  food,  utensils  of  all  sorts,  division  of  labor  among  the  Hurons, 
who  were  so  closely  related  to  the  Iroquois,  see 
Parkman:  Jesuits  in  Worth  America,  I,  16-18,  22-23.     (Copy  used  is 

vol.  Ill  of  the  Champlain  Edition  of  Parkman's  works,  published 

in  Boston  in  1897.) 


THE  SETTING.  19 

Senecas  had  and  have  a  plurality.19  This  population  was  gath 
ered  together  in  two  or  three  dozen  villages,  each  containing  a 
few  hundred  persons.  A  village  was  simply  a  number  of 
houses  close  enough  together  to  form  a  neighborhood,  for  there 
were  no  streets,  no  roads  and  no  orderly  arrangement  of  dwel 
lings.  In  each  house  there  lived  from  a  half  dozen  to  over  a 
dozen  families  in  our  sense  of  the  term.  The  house  itself  was 
an  oblong,  bark  dwelling  with  a  door  at  each  end,  a  series  of 
open,  single  "  rooms  "  or  sections  along  both  sides  of  the  build 
ing,  and  a  line  of  fire  places  down  the  center,  each  fire  serving 
the  families  in  the  two  sections  flanking  it.20 

The  maternal  family  was  the  smallest  political  and  social 
unit.  Such  a  family  included  a  woman,  her  sons  and  daugh 
ters,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  her  daughters,  and  so  on. 
When  a  household  became  large,  one  or  more  of  the  younger 
couples  would  go  off  and,  with  the  aid  of  their  relatives,  would 
build  a  house  for  themselves.  Such  houses  usually  were  small 
at  first  but  grew  and  in  time  became  real  long-houses.  Descent 
was  matrilinear  and  relationships  were  matronymic.  Govern 
ance  was  matripotestal ;  but  final  authority  rested  in  the 
brothers  and  uncles  of  the  women  of  the  household,  one  of  these 
men  being  selected  by  the  women  to  represent  the  house  in 
relations  between  it  and  outsiders.21 

19  Morgan,  II    (notes  59-60),  226-230,  gives  a  fairly  complete  dis 
cussion. 

Goldenweiser,  in  Geol.  Sur.  of  Canada,  Rep.  Anthr.  Div.,  Sessional 
Paper  no.  26  (1913),  p.  370,  conjectures  that  in  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury  there  were  nearly  forty  clans  in  the  League  and  that  each 
clan  contained  about  375  persons,  these  being  gathered  into  from 
two  to  five  maternal  families. 

20  Descriptions  of  houses  are  given  by 
Bartram:  Observations  .  .  .  ,  40-41. 

Greenhalgh :  Observations  .  .  .  ,  being  pp.  11-14  of  vol.  I  of  the  Docu 
mentary  Hist,  of  N.  T. 

Charlevoix:  Voyage,  II,  96-98. 

Lafitau,  II,  9-16. 

Morgan:  House  and  House-Life  .  .   .  ,   119-125,  with  pictures  and  a 
diagram. 
A   summary   and   discussion,  together  with  diagrams,   of  the   long 

house   are   given   by  Lloyd   in   Morgan:    League,   II    (notes    124-126), 

287-302. 

Parkman,  u.  s.,  I,  11-14,  note  2  p.  12,  note  1  p.  13. 

21  Goldenweiser,  u.  s.,  Rep.   for   1912,  467-468,   471.     Hewitt,   in  the 
Handbook,  1,  617,  303. 


20  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

The  social  and  political  unit  next  above  the  maternal  family 
was  the  clan.  In  any  tribe  a  clan  consisted  of  one  or  more 
maternal  families.  These  clan  members  felt  themselves  to  be 
related,  although  the  relationship  was  not  always  clear.  A 
clan  did  not  live  off  by  itself,  for  in  almost  any  village  could 
be  found  maternal  families  of  different  clans.  In  by-gone  days 
the  total  number  of  clans  may  have  been  close  to  forty.  The 
names,  however,  were  about  eight,  to  wit,  Bear,  Wolf,  Turtle, 
Beaver,  Snipe,  Deer,  Hawk  and  Heron.  The  Mohawk  and 
Oneida  tribes  seem  never  to  have  had  more  than  three  of  these 
clans,  Bear,  Wolf  and  Turtle,  but  all  eight  clan  names  could 
be  found  in  each  of  the  other  four  tribes.  Each  clan  of  a  tribe, 
however,  maintained  its  own  unity,  had  its  own  sets  of  indi 
vidual  names,  elected  its  own  chief  or  chiefs  to  the  Confedera 
tion  when  such  was  its  privilege,  and  chose  its  own  ceremonial 
officials.  All  clans  had  the  right  to  adopt  outsiders.  The 
clan,  too,  appears  formerly  to  have  had  rights  to  a  portion  of 
the  tribal  property  (see  below,  p.  81)  and  to  have  had  its  own 
burial  grounds.  Clansmen  were  expected  to  protect  and  to 
avenge  one  another.  For  the  last  two  hundred  years,  more 
or  less,  the  clans  have  been  the  exogamous  units,  the  interdict 
extending  throughout  the  Confederacy  so  that,  for  example,  not 
only  may  a  Seneca  warrior  of  the  clan  of  the  Bear  not  marry 
another  Seneca  Bear,  but  no  woman  of  the  Bear  Clan  in  any 
tribe  of  the  League  can  become  his  wife.  When  a  husband 
had  become  a  father  he  left  the  dwelling  of  his  mother  and 
joined  that  of  his  wife,  although  occasionally  the  wife  became 
a  member  of  her  husband's  house.22  Other  features  of  clan 

22  Discussion   of   political   and  social   organization   of  the   Iroquois 

has  gone  on  for  two  centuries. 

Charlevoix:  Voyage,  II,  36,  on  exogamy;  16-23  on  political  organ 
ization. 

Lafitau  has  a  long  discussion  of  the  subject,  I,  463-580;  particularly 
463-465,  469-486,  552-553,  556,  558,  564-565. 

Loskiel,  Pt.  I,  56,  on  exogamy;  137-140  on  political  organization. 

Morgan:  House  and  House-Life,  passim,  League,  II  (notes  54-58), 
217-226.  Lloyd's  descriptions  should  be  compared  with  the  more 
authoritative  accounts  given  by  Goldenweiser  and  Hewitt  which  are 
noted  below. 

Parkman,  I,  46-54  on  political  organization;  38-41  on  social  life. 

Beauchamp :  Civil,  Religious  and  Mourning  Councils  .  .  .  ,  passim. 

Chadwick :  The  People  of  the  Long  House,  passim. 


THE  SETTING.  21 

organization,  such  as  the  relation  to  the  totem  and  the  par 
ticipation  in  Confederate  affairs,  will  be  discussed  later  (see 
Chapter  IV). 

The  clans  of  every  tribe  were  grouped  into  two  divisions  or 
sides  or  phratries.  The  Iroquois  had  no  distinctive  names  for 
these  divisions.  The  clans  of  one  side  called  one  another 
brothers;  they  called  those  of  the  other  side  cousins.  The 
phratries  functioned  mainly  at  social  and  religious  ceremonies. 
The  great  games  were  played  between  the  divisions,  and  affairs 
were  conducted  according  to  membership  in  the  sides  at  burials, 
at  the  great  religious  festivals,  at  the  election  of  chiefs,  and  so 
on.  But  at  political  councils  phratric  arrangements  were  not 
observed.23 

The  social  and  political  unit  next  above  the  phratry  was  the 
tribe.  As  already  mentioned,  the  clans  were  grouped  into  six 
tribes,  each  of  which,  except  the  Mohawk  and  the  Oneida,  con 
tained  eight  or  more  clans.  The  members  of  the  tribe  felt 
themselves  to  be  one,  since  they  had  a  common  tradition,  a 
common  land  to  use  and  to  defend,  a  common  speech  and  par 
ticipation  in  the  great  tribal  religious  ceremonies  and  feasts  as 
well  as  in  the  tribal  councils  relating  to  religious,  military  or 
other  weighty  matters.24  Even  the  women  were  interested 
directly  in  these  councils,  for  they  took  part  in  some  and  in 
others  could  voice  their  opinions  through  some  orator  from 
among  the  men,  whom  they  chose  as  their  mouth-piece.25 

In  the  later  fifteenth  century,  probably,  the  five  tribes  in 
the  New  York  region  united  into  what  was  at  first  a  loose 
confederacy,  but  one  which  gradually  became  more  closely 
knit  and  strengthened.  The  purposes  of  the  League,  as  re- 

Goldenweiser,  Reps,  for  1912,  1913,  passim. 
Hewitt,  in  Handbook,  I,  303-306,  618. 

Also  references  in  note  3  of  Ch.  IV  below,  p.  76. 

The  most  recent  discussion  of  conciliar  ceremonial  has  been  by  C. 
M.  Barbeau:  "Iroquois  Clans  and  Phratries,"  Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.,  XIX 
(1917),  392-402  and  Goldenweiser's  comment,  t&.,  n.  s.,  XX  (1918), 
118-120. 

23  Goldenweiser :  Geol.  Sur.,  Rep.  for  1912,  464-466.     Hewitt,  u.  s.,  I, 
304.     Barbeau,  loc.  cit. 

24  Cf.  Hewitt,  loc.  cit.,  II,  814. 

25  Stone:  Red  Jacket,  139-143,  155-158,  gives  some  illustrations  of 
this  usage.    Women  did  speak  unofficially,  however.     Cf.  Goldenweiser, 
u.  s.,  Rep.  for  1912,  469. 


22  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

vealed  in  the  Deganawida  Myth,  were  to  secure  public  peace 
by  providing  a  means  for  eliminating  inter-tribal  quarrels,  to 
provide  more  effective  force  against  foreign  enemies  and  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  all  through  the  authority  and  justice 
of  law  and  the  supporting  arm  of  the  whole  body  of  warriors. 
The  fifty  chiefs  who  composed  the  Council  of  the  League  were 
chosen  by  the  women  of  the  tribe  and  clan  to  whom  that  right 
had  been  given  and  in  the  manner  designated  by  the  founders 
of  the  League.28 

An  Iroquois,  then,  had  a  strong  tie  of  kin  to  bind  him  to  his 
household,  clan  and  phratry.  To  his  tribe  he  was  bound  by 
the  bond  of  kin  and  by  the  bond  of  a  common  land,  speech  and 
council.  The  League  had  as  unifying  bonds  the  kin  tie,  since 
roughly  speaking  the  clan  systems  were  in  all  tribes,  a  common 
language,  a  common  country  to  defend  and  a  federal  council. 
Morgan  sums  up  the  situation,  although  incompletely,  by  say 
ing  that  "  The  life  of  the  Iroquois  was  either  spent  in  the 
chase,  on  the  war-path,  or  at  the  council-fire.  They  formed 
the  three  leading  objects  of  his  existence."27 

Other  interests  were  mirrored  in  appropriate  institutions.28 
The  details  of  the  education  of  the  young  will  be  discussed  later 
(see  p.  83) ;  here  it  will  suffice  to  say  that  education  was  strictly 
familiar,  the  mother  teaching  the  child  until  puberty,  at  which 

26  The  Deganawida  Myth  and  conciliar  ceremonial  will  be  discussed 
in  Ch.  IV,  p.  75  sq.    See  note  3,  p.  76. 
Beauchamp:   Iroquois   Trail,   11-38,   56-104  passim,   137-143.     In  Jour. 

Am.  F.-L.,  I,  201-203 ;  IV,  295-306. 
Brant-Sero:  "  Dekanawideh,"  in  Man,  1901,  166-170. 
Clark:  Onondaga,  I,  21-30,  38-43. 

Canfield :  Legends,  23-40,  137-148  and  Cornplanter's  comment,  208. 
Hale :  Book  of  Rites,  ch.  II. 
Hewitt:  "Leg-end  of  the  Founding-  of  the  League,"  Am.  Anthr.,  V,  131- 

148.     In  Handbook,  II,  815. 

For  the  actual  formation  of  the  League  see  note  14  above.  Some 
instances  attesting  the  weakness  of  conciliar  control,  whether  federal 
or  tribal,  and  the  looseness  of  the  Confederation  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  are  to  be  found  in  XLIII  Jes.  Rel.  (1656-7),  101,  103,  115, 
137,  215.  Sara  Stites  is  of  the  opinion  that  sufficient  consideration 
hitherto  has  not  been  given  to  the  economic  influences  underlying  the 
political  tribe,  clan,  etc.  Cf.  Stites,  96-120. 

271,  102. 

28  Parkman,  I,  introduction  pp.  3-87,  gives  an  easily  accessible  sum 
mary  of  Indian  life  in  the  central  East. 


THE  SETTING.  23 

time,  if  the  child  was  a  boy,  the  father  took  charge  and  taught 
his  son  to  hunt  and  to  fight.  The  Iroquois  religion,  as  shall  be 
seen,  did  not  unaided  transcend  Iroquois  social  conditions. 
Because  much  of  an  Iroquois's  life  was  bound  up  with  his 
economic  and  his  protective  activities,  his  gods  were  those  of 
war,  of  the  chase  and  of  agriculture.  Finally,  his  morals  were 
those  of  a  group  that  was  small  and  was  bound  by  kin  ties. 
His  ethics  had  a  division.  One  line  of  conduct  was  to  be 
pursued  with  regard  to  those  within  the  group,  and  another 
was  to  be  pursued  with  regard  to  those  without  the  group. 


CHAPTER  II 

IKOQUOIS   RELIGION. 

(CHIEFLY  IN  AND  BEFORE  THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTUBY  AND  UNAFFECTED 
BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.) 

DEFINITION  AND  REMARKS. 

SOME  phenomena  the  Iroquois  thought  he  understood,  for  he 
had  what  were  to  him  rational  explanations  of  them.1  But 
other  phenomena  were  far  from  being  matter  of  fact.  He  was 
thrilled  by  them  and  imbued  with  a  sense  of  the  presence  of 
the  mysterious;  he  was  impelled  to  get  into  right  relations 
with  the  uncanny  power  that  was  making  itself  manifest.2 
Not  only  did  his  religion  involve  the  emotional  reactions,  the 
beliefs  and  the  practices  that  were  connected  with  the  mys 
terious  and  the  uncanny  but,  by  its  very  nature,  the  religious 
attitude  emphasized  the  importance  of  things  religious  and 
of  all  that  became  associated  therewith.  Religion  was  an 
evaluating  agency  superior  to  any  other  possessed  by  the  Iro 
quois,  and  as  such  it  can  not  be  divorced  from  their  morals. 

Knowledge  of  the  religious  beliefs  and  practices  of  the  Iro 
quois  in  and  before  the  eighteenth  century  is  largely  infer- 
ential.  They  themselves  kept  no  record  of  their  society,  its 
composition,  constitution  and  history,  other  than  in  such 
stories,  fables,  myths,  oral  traditions  and  conduct  as  have 
survived  time.  Many  of  these,  so  long  preserved  in  the 
memory,  have  been  recorded  since  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  after  having  been  subjected  for  more  than  two  cen 
turies  to  White  influences.  Having  passed  by  word  of  mouth 
through  so  many  minds  and  so  many  years,  they  not  infre 
quently  have  become  contradictory,  inconsistent  and  confused. 
There  is  very  little  in  the  documentary  sources  that  did  not 

iCf.  Converse,  118-124. 

2  Cf.  the  Handbook,  II,  365.  Paul  Radin's  notable  article  on  the 
"Religion  of  the  North  American  Indians,"  in  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  XXVII 
(1914),  335-373. 

24 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES. 

pass  through  the  mind  of  a  white  man  in  being  recorded. 
Many  records  are  not  only  not  over  a  century  old,  but  many 
of  them  were  put  together  in  a  haphazard  manner,  being  more 
like  diaries  of  interesting  things  than  records  of  scientific  in 
vestigations  and  therefore  lacking  a  much  desired  complete 
ness.  Moreover,  the  Iroquois  did  not  wish  lightly  to  present 
his  sacred,  precious  beliefs  and  practices,  the  things  of  his.. 
very  self  in  his  sublimest  moments,  to  the  view  of  outsiders  who 
might  scoff  and  make  sport.3  It  was  given  to  few  to  learn  of 
the  inner  Iroquois  life.  One  is  compelled  to  believe,  there 
fore,  that  changes^ now  ^unknown  have  taken_place  in  Iroquois 
religion  before  the  nineteenth  century,  and  that  a  satisfying 
determination  of  their  religious  worship _befpje  that  century 
is  impossible  because  it  can  not  be  complete. 

IROQUOIS  VIEW  OF  THE  WORLD. 

The  study  of  these  traditions,  practices  and  other  records 
impresses  upon  the  modern  investigator  how  wide  apart  are  his 
outlook  upon  life  and  the  cultural  outlook  of  the  Iroquois. 
This  difference  is  exhibited  strikingly  by  the  Iroquois  notions 
concerning  the  earth  and  nature.  From  the  myths  one  gathers 
that  to  the  Iroquois  the  earth  was  merely  several  days'  journey' 
in  extent  from  his  home  as  center.  It  was  flat  and  was  covered 
by  the  sky  and  its  contents  which  touched  the  earth  in  east 
and  west.4  In  this  very  circumscribed  cosmos  nearly  all  phe 
nomena  hajLJife--ajod_jffi£re  interpreted  usually  in  terms  of 
personality  rather  than  in  terms  of  mere  physical  causes.  Life 
was  a  property  not  alone  of  animate  objects  but  of  inanimate 
objects  and  other  phenomena  such  as  rocks,  plants,  water,  tides, 
stars,  the  dawn,  thunder  storms,  and  so  on.  Pc^ssejsijigJife^ 
they  had  desires  and  wishes  and  effectuated  fEem  bv  means 
ofjtheir  subtle  power.  In  this  connection  Hewitt  has  asserted 
that  Iroquois  speculation  upon  such  emotion-stirring  phe 
nomena  as  storm  and  tempest,  life  and  death,  crisis  and  risk. 
led  to  the  vague  notion  of  a  mystic  potency  in  things,  a  potency 

3  Cf.  Converse,  10.     Canfield :  Legends,  20,  tells  how  Cornplanter  re 
spected  and  venerated  the  hoary  legends  of  his  great  ancestors. 

4  Cf.  Schoolcraft :  Myth  of  Hiawatha,,  251-261,  278-292. 

Hewitt:  "  Kaising  and  Falling  of  the  Sky  in  Iroquois  Legends,"  Am. 
Anthr.,  V,  344. 


26  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

not  understood  but  which  could  be  recognized  when  it  mani 
fested  itself  in  some  strange  way.  Thisjmpersonal  powerjwas 
called  orenda.  The  exercise  of  orenda,  called  otgon  if  evil 
resulted  to  man,  was  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the 
WflrM  of  pp^itg-S-  Trained  investigators  have  reconstructed 
the  conception  of  orenda  by  linguistic  analysis.  Hewitt 
perhaps  has  done  most  in  analyzing  this  concept  which  is  not 
peculiar  to  the  Iroquois  but  is  similar  to  those  found  under 
different  names  among  other  savage  peoples  in  America  and 
elsewhere.  Among  the  Iroquois  known  to  history  the  notion 
always  has  been  vague  and  elusive.  In  analyzing  it  as  mir 
rored  in  their  language  the  constant  danger  has  been  that 
meanings  unthought  of  by  the  people  may  be  attributed  to 
them.  Nevertheless,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  some  notion 
of  orenda  was  held  by  the  Iroquois  when  history  first  recorded 
contact  with  them,  and  that  the  manifestation  of  orenda  was 
common  in  the  large  world  of  spirits. 

THE  SPIRIT  WORLD. 

What  spirits  or  deities  received  worship  in  some  manner 
from  the  Iroquois  before  the  European  occupation  of  America 
is  not  completely  determinable.  It  is  certain  that  before  the 
Whites  came  the  Iroquois  had  a  Jiost  of  deities  and  other 
spirits  and  had  associated  religious  beliefs  and  practices  with 
them.  Some  of  these  spirits  were  more  powerful  than  others, 
some  were  more  important  than  others,  Jione  was  all  important 
or_alljpowerful,  all  were  distinguished  by  the  exercise  cxfpower 
in  ways  monTefficacious  than  man  could  exercise  it  and  all 
were  potentially  harmful  or  helpful  to  man.  Some  of  the 
deities  were  distinctly  supernatural  in  our  sense  of  the  term, 
but  rpngf  n-f  thfig  were  partly  supernatural  and  partly  non- 
jiatural  or  non-human  personalities  like  the  pygmies  or  the 
"  little  people?3 

A  relatively  late  creation  myth  introduces  many  of  the 
greater  deities  known  to  the  Iroquois  before  the  seventeenth 
century.  To  Iroquois  fcliouffht  jhe^  creation  out  of  nothing  of 

B  Hewitt  in  Handbook,  II,  147-148;  also  his  more  thorough  article, 
"  Orenda  and  a  Definition  of  Religion,"  in  Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.,  IV,  33-46. 
Paul  Radin,  u.  s.,  takes  marked  exception  to  the  acceptance  of  the 
mana  notions.  Cf.  Goldenweiser's  comment  upon  Radin  in  Jour.  Phil., 
Psych,  and  Set.  Methods,  XII,  no.  23,  (Nov.  11,  1915),  634-636. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  27 

the  earth  and  all  that  is  therein  was  unknown.  Beings  existed 
in  the  sky  before  the  earth  was  made.  A  sea  with  aquatic 
animals  and  with  an  earthy  bottom  lay  below.  The  beings  at 
that  time  lived  in  villages  under  head  men6  as  later  did  the 
Indians  on  earth.  \  The  earth  itself,  according  to  the  numrrous 
and  varying  creation  legends,  was  formed  at  a  time  when  some 
trouble,  brewing  in  a  chief's  household  in  the  sky,  resulted  in 
the  forcible  exile  of  his  wife.  He  became  jealous.  Wrong 
fully  accusing  her  of  wilful  faithlessness  he  cunningly  deceived 
her  and  pushed  or  kicked  her  through  a  hole  made  in  the  sky. 
Luckily  the  animals  in  the  sea  below  saw  the  fall  of  the  un 
fortunate  woman-being  and  prepared  to  catch  her.  Earth  was 
fetched  from  the  bottom  of  the  sea  and  was  placed  upon  the 
turtle's  broad  and  sturdy  back,  after  a  council — this  is  char 
acteristically  Indian — had  determined  upon  that  line  of  action. 
To  this  spot  she  was  lowered  gently  by  birds,  and  here  she 
gave  birth  to  two  sons,  some  say  to  a  daughter  who  bore  the 
two  sons.  Meanwhile  the  earth  on  the  turtle's  back  expanded 
and  grew  and  became  the  Earth.  The  two  lads  grew  and 
made  the  things  on  Earth,  but  they  did  not  make  all  things 
for  beings  such  as  the  gods  of  winds  and  of  storms  already 
existed.7 

e  It  is  significant  that,  with  one  exception,  the  Iroquois  tales  and 
myths  speak  only  of  headmen  and  villages.  The  Deganawida  Myth 
is  the  only  one  that  refers  to  the  League  and  to  intricate  political  and 
social  organization. 

7  There  are  many  versions  of  the  Creation  Myth.     The  best  accounts 
are  the  Onondaga,  Seneca  and  Mohawk  versions  given  in  translation 
by  Hewitt  in  Bur.  Ethn.  Rep.,  XXI,  133-339.     His  translation  is  ac 
companied  by  the  original  and  an  interlinear  translation  of  it.     Other 
accounts  may  be  found  in 
Charlevoix:  Voyage,  II,  108,  109. 
Sagard:  Histoire  du  Canada,  I,  451-452. 
X  Jes.  Rel.  (1636),  127-139,  giving  the  Huron  version. 
Hewitt :  "  Cosmogonic  Gods  of  the  Iroquois,"  Amer.  Ass.  Adv.  Sci.,  Proc.t 

XLIV,  241-250,  giving  an  analysis  of  the  beings  named  in  the  myth 

and  of  their  relation  to  natural  phenomena. 
Schoolcraft:  Notes  on  the  Iroquois,  36-37. 
Hale :  "  Creation  Myth,"  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  I,  177-183. 
Cusick,  in  Beauchamp's  Iroquois  Trail,  1-5. 
Converse,  31-38. 
Cf .  C.  M.  Barbeau :  Huron  and  Wyandot  MytholoffV,  Canada  Geol.  S 

vey,    Memoir    80    (Ottawa,    1915).     Very   suggestive.     For   creati< 

myths  similar  to  those  of  the  Iroquois,  v.  37  sq. 


28  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

She  who  was  kicked  out  of  the  sky  was  Atahentsic.  Her 
final  dwelling  place  was  in  the  West,  where  she  ruled  over  evil 
spirits  and  over  such  spirits  of  the  dead  as  had  the  misfortune 
to  wander  into  her  realms.  Her  "representative,"  or  her 
daughter's  in  those  myths  that  credited  her  with  one,  was  the 
moon.  Her  husband,  under  different  names,  appeared  in  some 
accounts  as  her  son  or  grandson.  Both  he  and  she  mayhap 
were  previously  Huron.  As  Xarenyawagon  he  was  very  im 
portant,  being  the  "  Holder  of  the  ]FTpn^eTis,?Mm^fripnd  of 
the  Iroquois  and  sender  of  dreams*.  Myth  says  that  it  was  he 
who  led  the  Iroquois  tribes  to  New  York,  gave  each  its  seat 
there  and  taught  the  members  of  each  to  farm,  to  procure  meat 
and  to  live  together.  As  Jouskeha  he  also  ruled  the  realm  of 
spirits  in  the  West,  but  his  was  the  realm  where  souls  were 
happy.  It  is  said  he  dwelt  there  with  Atahentsic.  His  "  rep 
resentative  "  was  the  sun.  As  Agrrskonc  ho  was  the  gojjjjiigfty 
^ofwar.  Our  recognition  of  the  same  deity  under  different 
names  was  not,  so  far  as  can  be  determined,  Iroquoian.  To 
an  Iroquois  each  name  denoted  a  different  deity.8 

s  Hewitt,  u.  s.,  concludes  that  Tarenyawagon  can  not  be  identified 
with  the  Huron  Jouskeha,  that  Atahentsic  could  not  have  become  the 
moon,  and  that  Jouskeha  should  not  be  identified  with  the  sun.  Cf. 
pp.  243,  245,  246.  Hewitt  agrees  largely  with  Brinton's  conclusions  in 
Hero  Myths,  53-62.  Both  affirm,  on  the  basis  of  linguistic  analysis, 
that  Jouskeha  and  Atahentsic  dwelt  in  the  East,  and  both  identify 
Jouskeha  with  the  dawn  and  Atahentsic  with  the  waters.  Brinton 
endeavors  to  show  how  Jouskeha  and  Tarenyawagon  became  confused. 
Cf.  Barbeau,  288  sq.  For  further  discussion  of  Jouskeha,  Atahentsic 
and  Tarenyawagon  see 
Charlevoix:  Voyage,  II,  108,  109,  172.  P.  117  describes  the  western 

realm  of  Atahentsic  and  Jouskeha. 
Lafitau,  I,  133-135,  showing  the  identification  of  the  deities  one  with 

another.    P.  244  discusses  Atahentsic. 
Brinton :  Myths  of  the  New  World,  169-172. 
Jouskeha  as  sun  and  Atahentsic  as  moon  are  set  forth,  for  the  Hurons, 

in  X  J.  R.    (1636),   133   sq.     Cf.  VIII  J.  R.    (1635),   117-119.     XLII 

J.    R.    (1655-1656),    197,    deals   with   Tarenyawagon    as    Dwarf,    as 

Holder  of  the  Heavens  and  Guardian  of  the  Iroquois. 
Sagard,  I,  ch.  XXX,  differs  from  other  writers  in  some  details.     He 

wrote  of  the  Hurons. 

Hale:   Jour.   Am.  F.-L.,  I,   177-183,  gives  a  Huron  creation  myth  as 
related  about  a  generation  ago. 
Hale :  Book  of  Rites,  74. 
Cusick,  in  Iroquois  Trail,  11-14. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  29 

Not  so  exalted  as  Tarenyawagon  and  Agreskoue  but  of  prime 
importance  was  th^Kaablp  old  irnn.n 


god  of  storms^  sender...  of  ..  the  beneficent  rain,  solicitous  care 
taker  of  plants  and-texrible  scourge  of  evil  doers,9  The  kindly 
and  powerful  but  touchy  Spiiit-oOEnds  was  Gaoh,  who  never 
left  his  western  home  in  the  sky  and  whose  moods  were  mir 
rored  in  the  blasts  of  hurricanes  and  in  the  zephyrs  of  spring 
time.10 

Of  these  gods  three  at  least  were  worshiped  long  ago  in 
definite  ceremonies.  Tarenyawagon,  though  venerated,  ap 
peared  under  that  name  in  but  one  ceremonial  feast,  that  of 
the  White  Dog,  an  innovation  hardly  antedating  the  seven 
teenth  century  (see  below,  pp.  56,  69-70).  The  sacrifice  of 
the  White  Dog  became  a  part  of  the  older  F 


which  Tarenyawagon  functioned  as  Master  of  Their  Lives  and 
which  will  be  described  below  in  connection  with  dreams.  This 
important  feast  was  the  one  regularly  recurring  religious  cere 
mony  performed  before  the  nineteenth  century.  The  time  for 
observing  other  formal  celebrations  depended  upon  special 
conditions  such  as  war,  a  bad  hunting  season,  drought,  and 
the  like. 

reskoue  attracted  much  attention.  Charlevoix  says  of 
him  thaFhe  was  "  theic--chie£-^ad  ;  or  as  they  express  it,  the 
Great  Spirit,  the  Creator  and  Master  of  the  World,  the  Genius 
who  governs  every  Thing:  But  it  is  chiefly  for  military  Ex 
peditions  that  they  invoke  him;  .  .  .  His  Name  is  the  War- 
Cry  beforelEe  Battle,  and  in  the  Height  of  the  Engagement."11 

Beauchamp,  in  Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour.,  XIV,  345-346. 

Converse,  33-34. 

Hewitt,  in  Bur.  Ethn.  Rep.,  XXI,  183,  185   (Onondaga)  ;  228,  230-231 

(Seneca)  ;  290,  292-293   (Mohawk). 

For  Agreskoue  see  notes  11-14  of  this  chapter.     As  regards  Huron 
influences  see  note  14  of  ch.  I  above.     Also 
Charlevoix:  History,  II,  72-73. 
Donohoe  :  Iroquois  and  the  Jesuits,  51,  56. 
XLI  J.  R.   (1654-1656),  119. 

9  Hewitt,  u.s.,  336-339. 

Mrs.  Smith  :  Myths  of  the  Iroquois,  Bur.  Ethn.  Kep.  II,  52,  54-55. 

Converse,  39-42. 

Morgan:  League,  I,  149-151. 

10  Converse,  36-38.     Morgan,  I,  151-152. 

11  Voyage,  I,  177. 


30  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

How  much  is  known  of  all  their  practices  connected  with  him 
is  an  open  question.  But  it  is  certain  that  Affreskoue  at  times 
exacted  sacrifices  f rom -hts-peopl^-  Father  Jogues  was  fami 
liar  with  such  ceremonies  and  relates  that 

"  They  have  recourse  in  their  necessities  to  a  demon  whom  they 
call  Aireskoi,  to  whom  they  offer,  as  it  were,  the  first  fruits  of  every 
thing.  When,  for  instance,  a  Stag  has  been  taken,  they  call  the  eldest 
of  the  hut  or  of  the  Village,  to  the  end  that  he  may  bless  it  or 
sacrifice  it.  This  man,  standing  opposite  the  one  who  holds  some  of 
the  flesh,  says  with  a  loud  voice :  '  Oh,  Demon  Aireskui,  we  offer  thee 
this  flesh,  and  prepare  for  thee  a  feast  with  it,  that  thou  mayst  eat 
of  it,  and  show  us  where  are  the  stags,  and  send  them  into  our  snares, — 
or,  at  least,  that  we  may  see  them  again  in  the  winter,'  etc.;  or,  in 
sickness,  '  to  the  end  that  we  may  recover  health.'  They  do  the  same 
in  fishing,  w?ar,  etc."i2 

In  this  connection  the  Jesuits  mention  several  times  the  re 
ligious  duty  of  eating  captives  and  say  that  the  practice  was 
customary.13  Father  Jogues  speaks  of  anthropophagy  as  being 
not  uncommon.  He  tells  that  during  the  winter,  at  a  solemn 
feast  that  the  Iroquois  had  made  of  two  bears  which  they  had 
offered  to  Agreskoue,  they  had  expressed  this  prayer:  "Air 
eskoi,  thou  dost  right  to  punish  us,  and  to  give  us  no  more 
captives,  because  we  have  sinned  by  not  eating  the  bodies  of 
those  whom  thou  last  gavest  us;  but  we  promise  thee  to  eat  the 
first  ones  whom  thou  shalt  give  us,  as  we  now  do  with  these  two 
Bears."  And,  says  he,  they  kept  their  promise.  Of  some 
female  captives  he  relates  that 

"  They  brought  three  women  from  the  same  nation,  with  their 
little  children,  and  received  them  naked,  with  heavy  blows  of  sticks ; 
they  cut  off  their  fingers,  and,  after  having  roasted  one  of  them  over 
her  entire  body,  they  threw  her,  still  alive,  into  a  great  fire,  to  make 
her  die  therein, — an  act  uncommon,  even  there  (that  is,  the  burning 
of  women  was  uncommon).  And,  as  often  as  they  applied  the  fire 
to  that  unhappy  one  with  torches  and  burning  brands,  an  Old  man 
cried  in  a  loud  voice :  '  Aireskoi,  we  sacrifice  to  thee  this  victim,  that 
thou  mayst  satisfy  thyself  with  her  flesh,  and  give  us  victory  over  our 
enemies.'  The  pieces  of  this  corpse  were  sent  to  the  other  Villages, 
there  to  be  eaten."** 

12  XXXIX  J.  R.  (1653),  207-209. 

is  XL  J.  R.  (1653-1654),  169;  XLI  J.  R.  (1653-1654),  53;  note  14 
below.  Yet  Hale :  Rites,  97,  says,  "  The  Iroquois  never  burnt  women 
at  the  stake." 

i*  XXXIX  J.  R.  (1653),  219-221. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  31 

Moreover,  such  eating  of  victims  may  have  been  more  than 
propitiatory,  for  it  seems  to  have  been  believed  that  the  par^ 
taking  of  strange  food  or  of  food  under  strange  circumstances 
gave  the  eater  alnystic  power  which  insured  succ^ss~TnTiuiitirrg 
the  iiving^members  of  the  victim's  speciesT  XTTirnleFrelates 
that  at  his  initiation  upb~n~~eli£eiTng~lrnanhood  he  encountered 
a  spirit  that  offered  him  a  bit  of  human  flesh.  He  was  so 
horrified  that  he  rejected  it.  The  spirit  then  gave  him  some 
bear  meat  to  eat  and  he  became  a  mighty  hunter.  "He  at 
tributes  this  excellent  fortune  that  he  has  always  had  in  the 
chase,  to  the  piece  of  bear's  fat  that  the  Demon  made  him  eat ; 
and  he  judges  from  this  that  he  would  have  had  equal  success 
in  war,  had  he  eaten  the  piece  of  human  flesh  that  he  refused."15 

Heno  as  the  nurturer  of  plants  was  asked  at  planting  time 
to  send  the  welcome  rains  for  the  aid  of  the  seedlings,  and  he 
was  "  thanked "  for  his  services  at  harvest  time.  During 
droughts  Heno  was  appealed  to  and  tobacco,  the  usual  offering 
of  the  Iroquois,  was  burned  to  induce  rain.16 

Religious  dances  played  an  important  part  in  the  great 
festivals  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Such  dances  were  not  of 
recent  invention,  but  so  few  are  the  remarks  of  observers  before 
that  time  concerning  the  dance  that  a  discussion  of  this  mode 
of  worship  is  best  undertaken  in  connection  with  the  religious 
ceremonies  of  more  recent  times  (see  below,  p.  66). 

The  Iroquois  recognized  no  hierarchy  in  the  spirit  world, 
although  some  Spirits  were  regarded  as  lower  than  others. 
Such  spirits  were  nearer  man  and  usually  were  concerned  more 
directly  with  human  affairs.  In  general,  these  spirits  were 
most  active  in  the  summer  season  and  hibernated  during  the 
winter.17  These  less  exalted  spirits  round  about  man  filled 
leading  parts  in  tale  and  myth.  Some  of  them  were  aids  to 
the  greater  spirits.  Notable  among  them  were  the  Thunder 
ers,  who  assisted  Heno  in  his  work  of  providing  the  beneficient 
water  for  growth  and  in  his  opposition  to  evil.  These  warrior- 
like  individuals  were  dreaded  particularly  by  the  evil  serpents 
that  recognized  in  the  Thunderers  their  sworn,  implacable 

« XXIII  J.  R.   (1642),  157-159. 

16  Morgan,  I,  155,  194.     Cf.  Boyle  in  Jour.  Anthr.  Inst.,  XXX   (or 
n.  s.,  Ill),  268.    Mrs.  Smith,  n.  s.,  72-73.    Note  9  above. 

17  Morgan,  II,  255.     Cf .  p.  78  below  and  note  14  of  Ch.  IV. 


32  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

enemies.18  Similarly,  the  Spirit  of  Winds  had  his  assistants, 
for  the  four  winds — the  Bear  or  North  Wind,  the  Panther  or 
West  Wind,  the  Moose  or  East  Wind  and  the  Fawn  or  South 
Wind — were  subject  to  Gaoh.  He  it  was  who  released  them  to 
lead  their  winds  up  and  down  the  earth.19  Tarenyawagon  as 
Sender  of  Dreams  communicated  his  wishes  to  the  dreamer 
through  his  messenger,  Aikon.  Because  of  missionary  teach 
ing  Aikon  appears  not  to  have  survived  the  eighteenth  century 
(see  below,  pp.  56,  69). 

Lesser  spirits  did  not  always  have  specific  names.  The 
name  oki,20  or  manitou,  often  was  applied  to  them  on  the  whole 
with  the  same  vague  meaning  as  our  word  spirits.  The  name 
also  was  used  in  a  restricted  sense  to  denote  the  guardian 
spirits  of  men  and  of  women  and  as  such  will  appear  in  the 
discussion  of  dreams.  The  minor  spirits  were  those  that 
guarded  plant  life  in  all  its  forms  and  that  dwelt  in  all  plants, 
and  were  those  of  dangerous,  strange,  awe-inspiring  places 
and  things21  such  as  water-falls  and  cataracts,  cliffs  and  deep 
ravines,  peculiar  rocks  and  fire,  medicines  and  the  seasons  and 
the  stars.22  Day  and  night  were  incarnate.  Winter,  an  old 
man,  was  melted  or  driven  away  each  spring  by  the  youthful 
male  or  female  Spirit  of  Spring.23  Such  spirits  were  spoken 

18  Converse,  41,  42-45. 
Mrs.  Smith,  55-58. 
Beauchamp:  Iroquois  Trail,  50-53. 
Lafitau,  I,  253,  on  the  horror  of  snakes. 

i»  Converse,  36-38. 

20  Parkman,  u.  s.,  I,  75.     Cf.  Barbeau,  u.  s.,  333. 

21  Cf.  Lafitau,  I,  145-146. 

22  The  legends  best  set  forth  the  spirit  world,  hence  one  should 
consult  particularly  Mrs.  Converse,  Mrs.   Smith,   Cusick  and  Canfield. 
Canfield,  186,  has  a  fine  photograph  of  the  Oneida  Stone.     The  Journals 
have  some  additional  material.     Consult  the  bibliography  under  the 
names,   Beauchamp,   Brant-Sero,   Hagar,   Hale,   Hewitt,   Parker.     Bar- 
beau  gives  many  myths  similar  to  those  of  the  Iroquois.     Besides  those 
mentioned  above  he  records  myths  dealing  with  Heno   (51,  322,  330) 
and  the  oki   (333).     His  introduction  is  excellent.     A  variety  of  tales 
are  to  be  found  in  Schoolcraft's  Notes  and  in  his  Myth  of  Hiawatha, 
and  in  Johnson's  Legends,  Traditions  and  Laws  of  the  Iroquois. 

23  Hewitt,  in  Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.,  IV,  33. 
Converse,  45,  51,  66,  96-107,  etc. 
Morgan,  I,  193-194,  211. 

XLI  J.  R.  (1654-1656),  123-125;  XLIV  J.  R.  (1656-1658),  25;  LI  J.  R. 
(1667-1668),  181-183;  LVII  J.  R.  (1672-1673),  147-149. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  33 

of  frequently  as  the  Invisible.  AMs.24  Three  of them ,came. to 
be  selected  for  particular  attention.  The  spirits  of  the  Corn, 
Bean r  and _Squ&sF  Tbecame  "especially  important  Because  "Ihey" 
nurtured  and  cared  for  these  most  important  of  all  the  Iro- 
quois  agricultural  products.  They  were  called  the  Xhree 
Sisters  for  they  were  known  to  be  inseparable,  and  the  Iro- 
quois  planted  com,  beans  and  squash  together.25  It  has  been 
stated  that  things  of  nature  were  thought  to  act  in  ways 
analogous  to  human  ways  since  they  were  personalized.  They 
might,  therefore,  and  often  did  have  desires  ruinous  to  human 
welfare.  For  instance,  the  notorious  Flying-Heads  loved 
human  flesh.  Such  spirits  were  not  averse  to  using  human 
aid,  witches,  in  order  to  accomplish  their  purposes.  Serpents 
were  the  sign  of  evil  spirits,  and  certain  other  strange  creatures 
such  as  owls  were  the  embodiment  of  suspicious  power.  It 
was  one's  duty  to  drive  away  such  animals.  Evil  spirits  often 
hid  themselves  in  the  ground,  but  little  hillocks  always  formed 
over  them,  thus  revealing  their  hiding  places.  Many  of  these 
beings  were  non-natural  rather  than  supernatural,  but,  whether 
"  aBov^  M  uia.li  or  not,  their  otgon  or  malefic  power  was  danger 
ous  and  one  did  well  to  propitiate  or  to  get  rid  of  them.26 

Formal  worship  usually  was  not  accorded  these  minor 
spirits,  but  it  was  customary  to  offer  them  presents.  Such 
offerings,  of  tobacco  particularly  and  of  other  plants  and  of 
animals,  were  made  for  propitiatory  purposes  or  for  getting 
aid  or  warding  off  evil,  to  spirits  that  could  help  or  hurt  man. 
For  example,  in  collecting  ginseng  one  sprinkled  a  little 
tobacco  on  the  first  plant  found,  for  good  luck,  and  left  the 
plant  untouched.  Not  to  do  so  would  indicate  a  lack  of  respect 
for  the  spirit.  A  Jesuit  missionary  relates  that,  in  passing  a 
wayside  deity  whose  presence  was  made  known  by  a  couple  of 

24  Morgan,  I,  154,  155;  cf.  194,  211. 

25  Morgan,  I,  152 ;  cf.  194,  211. 

Mrs.  Smith,  53.     Canfield,  51-53.     Converse,  63-66 ;  185-186. 
Parker:  Maize,  27. 

2«  Clark :  Onondaga,  I,  43,  47. 
Mrs.   Smith,   53,   59-62,  and  the  picture  of  a   Flying-Head,  Plate  XV, 

facing  p.  64. 

Converse,  47-48,  51-52,  74-87. 
Cusick,  5-11. 

Schoolcraft:  Notes,  154,  156-161. 
Beauchamp  in  Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour.,  XIV,  348-349. 


34  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

round  stones  on  the  roadside,  it  was  customary  to  throw  a 
small  stick  on  the  stones  by  way  of  homage  and  to  add  these 
words:  "Here  is  something  to  pay  my  passage,  that  I  may 
proceed  in  safety."27  The  Fathers  have  left  an  interesting 
account  of  another  offering. 

"Arriving  within  three-quarters  of  a  league  of  the  Falls  by  which 
Lake  St.  Sacrement  empties,  we  all  halted  at  this  Spot,  without  know 
ing  why,  until  we  saw  our  Savages  at  the  water-side  gathering  up 
flints,  which  were  almost  all  cut  into  shape.  We  did  not  at  that  time 
reflect  upon  this,  but  have  since  then  learned  the  meaning  of  the 
mystery  ;  for  our  Iroquois  told  us  that  they  never  fail  to  halt  at  this 
place,  to  pay  homage  to  a  race  of  invisible  men  who  dwell  there  at  the 
bottom  of  the  lake.  These  beings  occupy  themselves  in  preparing 
flints,  nearly  all  cut,  for  the  passers-by,  providing  the  latter  pay  their 
respects  to  them  by  giving  them  tobacco.  If  they  give  these  beings 
much  of  it,  the  latter  give  them  a  liberal  supply  of  these  stones.  These 
water-men  travel  in  canoes,  as  do  the  Iroquois  ;  and,  when  their  great 
Captain  proceeds  to  throw  himself  into  the  water  to  enter  his  Palace, 
he  makes  so  loud  a  noise  that  he  fills  with  fear  the  minds  of  those 
who  have  no  knowledge  of  this  great  Spirit  and  of  those  little  men. 
.  .  .  We  asked  them  if  they  did  not  also  give  some  tobacco  to  the 
great  spirit  of  Heaven,  and  to  those  who  dwell  with  him.  The  answer 
was  that  they  do  not  need  any,  as  do  the  people  on  the  earth.  The 
occasion  o^f  this  .  .  .  story  is  the  fact  that  the  Lake  is,  in  reality, 
often  agitated  by  very  frightful  tempests."28 


Evil  spirits,  many  of  whom  were  cla  s.8Pfl 
FalseTF'alle"g,  had  to  be  placated  an.d  soot.hpfl  sn  t.hnt 
not  deal  harshly  with  man.  There  was  a  band  of  human  False- 
Faces,  for  they  wore  hideous  masks,  that  propitiated  the  un 
earthly  ones  by  a  dance.  Since  evil  spirits  caused  illness,  as 
the  Jesuits  so  often  relate,  the  False-Faces  were  regarded  as 
curers  of  disease  and  were  called  in  time  of  need.29  Sometimes 
evil  was  avoided  by  the  observance  of  a  taboo.  A  Jesuit  re 
ports  that  on  one  occasion  he  arrived  at  a  spring  whose  water 
the  Iroquois  dared  not  drink  because  there  was  an  evil  spirit 
in  it  that  rendered  it  foul.  It  proved  to  be  a  spring  of  salt 

27XLIV  J.  R.   (1656-1658),  25-27. 

28  LI  J.  R.  (1667-1668),  181-183. 

29  Morgan,  I,  157-160. 

Converse,  74-78   (with  pictures).     On  the  confusion  of  the  False-Faces 
and  the  Flying-Heads,  79  note  2. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  35 

water.30  Sometimes  an  evil  spirit  could  be  coerced.  If  such  a 
spirit  were  hidden  in  the  ground,  an  Iroquois,  by  bending  a 
sapling  over  near  the  hillock  that  showed  where  the  demon 
lurked  and  tying  the  top  branch  to  the  roots,  could  cause  the 
hillock  to  disappear.  That  meant  the  evil  spirit  had  moved  on 
and  its  evil  power  was  overcome.31 

DREAMS. 

So  important  a  position  did  dreams  hold  among  the  Iroquois 
that  they  require  special  consideration.  Arthur  C.  Parker 
has  said  that  only  the  close._stu_de_nt.  (^_saxa^.jraj3jes_^ajijmpw 
the  extent  to  w.Mcb ..dreams.  mfl«^ft€»-pFimitive.^minds.32  His 
statement  is  true  for  the  Indians.  Although  the  role  of  the 
dream  among  the  Iroquois  of  the  nineteenth  century  has 
lessened  considerably,  chiefly  because  of  missionary  teaching 
(see  below,  p.  56),  nevertheless  such  information  teaching 
points  unmistakably  to  the  fact  that  the  Iroquois  in  the  past 
were  no  exception  to  Parker's  generalization.  The  Indians 
knew  that  through  dreams  medicines  could  be  discovered,  the 
cure  for  ills  learned,  rain  could  be  caused,  and  other  desirable 
powers  or  knowledge  could  be  acquired.  Through  dreams, 
among  the  Indians  of  the  Plains,  women  even  could  acquire 
new  decorative  designs.  Moreover,  only  through  the  dream 
could  youth  acquire  the  aid  of  a  spirit  in  order  to  make  a  suc 
cess  of  life.  On  the  whole  the  Indian  believed  sincerely  in 
fjrpa.pria-.aiid  regarded  them  as  a  most  important  anH""w1rtety 
used  meaiiS.  for_  increasing  .one's i^owe^ami  knowjedge.  Some 
Blackfoot  Indians,  for  instance,  assured  Clark  Wissler  that 
Edison's  invention  of  the  phonograph  must  have  been  the 
result  of  a  dream,  for  of  course  that  was  the  way  one  acquired 

soXLI  J.  R.   (1654-1656),  123-125.     Cf.  also 
Charlevoix:  Voyage,  II,  112. 
Lafitau,  I,  179-180.     Sagard,  I,  456-457. 
Bacqueville  de  La  Potherie :  Histoire,  III,  4. 
Loskiel,  Pt.  I,  44-45. 

31  Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour.,  XIV,  348-349.     In  Hewitt's  translations  of 
the  cosmologic  myths,  Good,  the  brother  of  Evil,  is  called  Sapling.     Is 
there  any  connection  between  the  good  spirit,  Sapling,  and  the  prac 
tice  just  mentioned? 

32  Converse,  94  note   1.     Cf.  LI  J.  R.    (1666-1668),   123-125.     Kadin, 

U.S.,  364-369. 


36  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

such  extraordinary  information.33  Father  Chaumonot  be 
wailed  the  fact  that  the  Iroquois  clung  so  tenaciously  to  his 
faith  in  dreams. 

"  Dreams  form  one  of  the  chief  hindrances  to  their  Conversion ; 
and  to  these  they  are  so  attached  that  they  attribute  to  them  all  their 
past  great  successes,  both  in  war  and  in  hunting.  Now,  as  they  well 
know  that  the  belief  in  dreams  is  incompatible  with  the  Faith,  they 
become  even  more  obstinate,  especially,  as  they  are  aware  of  the  fact 
that,  the  moment  the  Hurons  received  the  Faith  and  abandoned  their 
dreams,  their  ruin  began,  and  their  whole  Country  has  ever  since  been 
declining  to  its  final  total  destruction.'^* 

He  who  desired  the  help  of  the  spirits  that  appear  in  dreams 

I   usually  must  go  off  to  some  lonely  spot  and  there  fast,  pray, 

)  center  his  mind  upon  the  dream  and  the  dream  spirit  and  so 

")  make  himself  fit  to  receive  a  dream.     Success  depended  upon 

religious  conduct  (see  below  p.  75). 

The  Iroquois  at  least  two  centuries  ago  were  wont  to  cele 
brate  one  of  their  most  important  religious  festivals  in  con- 
/nection  with  the  deity  of  the  dream,  Tarenyawagon,  in  his 
/  capacity  of  Sender  of  Dreams.  In  those  days  the  Iroquois  im 
plicitly  obeyed  the  behests  of  that  deity  as  delivered  by  his 
messenger,  Aikon.  Some  widely  known  accounts  of  the 
lengths  to  which  the  Iroquois  would  go  in  carrying  out  the 
will  of  the  god  as  revealed  in  the  dream  have  been  written  by 
the  Jesuit  missionaries.  The  good  Fathers  had  little  sym 
pathy  for  the  Iroquois  attitude  toward  dreams  and  conse 
quently  were  impressed  most  by  the  spectacular  conduct  of  the 
natives.  It  does  seem  that  some  of  the  Iroquois  were  interested 
in  making  spectacles  of  themselves  and  in  little  else,  but  be 
tween  the  lines  in  the  Jesuit  accounts  of  dream  practices  can 
be  seen  the  unusually  strong  emotion  aroused,  the  earnest 
desire  to  do  or  to  have  what  was  dreamed  and  the  abiding 
faith  in  the  dream.  Fathers  Dablon  and  Chaumonot  relate 
that  they  saw  a  celebration  of  the  New  Year's  Festival  for  the 
"  Demon  of  Dreams  "  in  1656,  on  February  22,  23  and  24. 

"  The  elders  go  to  proclaim  it  through  the  streets  of  the  town. 
...  As  soon  as  this  festival  was  announced  by  these  public  cries, 

asWissler:  Ceremonial  Bundles  of  the  Blackfoot  Indians,  Am.  Mus. 
Nat.  Hist.,  VII  (1912),  102. 

34XLII  J.  R.  (1655-1656),  135. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  37 

nothing  was  to  be  seen  but  men,  women  and  children  running  like 
madmen  through  the  streets  and  through  the  cabins,  but  in  quite  a 
different  fashion  from  European  masqueraders.  Most  of  them  are 
nearly  naked  and  seem  not  to  feel  the  cold,  which  is  almost  unbear 
able  to  those  who  are  the  best  covered.  It  is  true  that  some  give  no 
other  sign,  of  their  madness  than  to  run  half  naked  through  all  the 
cabins ;  but  others  are  mischievous ;  some  carry  water  or  something 
worse  and  throw  it  upon  those  they  meet ;  others  take  firebrands,  coals 
and  ashes  and  scatter  them  about  without  caring  on  whom  they  fall. 
Others  break  the  kettles  and  dishes  and  all  the  houseware  that  they 
find  in  their  course.  Some  go  armed  with  swords,  bayonets,  knives, 
hatchets  or  cudgels,  and  pretend  to  strike  with  those  every  one  they 
meet,  and  all  this  continues  until  their  dream  is  guessed  and  fulfilled ; 
as  to  which  there  are  two  things  quite  remarkable. 

"  The  first  is  that  it  sometimes  happens  that  one  is  not  clever  enough 
to  divine  their  thoughts,  for  they  do  not  state  them  clearly,  but  by 
enigmas,  by  phrases  of  hidden  meaning,  by  signs  and  sometimes  by 
gestures  alone ;  so  that  good  Oedipuses  are  not  always  found.  Never 
theless  they  will  not  leave  the  spot  until  their  thought  is  divined,  and 
if  one  delays  too  long,  if  one  does  not  wish  to  divine  it,  or  if  one 
cannot,  they  threaten  to  burn  up  everything ;  which  comes  to  pass 
only  too  often  .  .  .  One  of  these  idiots  darted  into  our  cabin  and 
insisted  that  we  should  guess  his  dream  and  fulfil  it.  ...  One  of  our 
hosts  .  .  .  came  to  him  to  learn  what  he  wanted.  The  maniac 
answered,  'I  kill  a  Frenchman,  that  is  my  dream  which  must  be  ful 
filled  at  any  cost.'  Our  host  threw  him  a  French  coat,  as  if  it  had  been 
taken  from  a  dead  man,  and  at  the  same  time  began  himself  to  rage, 
saying  that  he  wished  to  avenge  the  death  of  the  Frenchman,  that  his 
destruction  should  be  followed  by  that  of  the  whole  village,  which  he 
was  going  to  reduce  to  ashes,  beginning  with  his  own  cabin.  There 
upon  he  drove  out  his  relatives  and  friends  and  house-people  and  all 
the  crowd  that  had  gathered  to  see  the  issue  of  this  disturbance. 
Thus  left  alone,  he  shut  the  doors  and  set  the  whole  place  on  fire. 
At  the  moment  when  everybody  expected  to  see  the  whole  house  in 
flames  Father  Chaumonot  came  up,  returning  from  an  errand  of 
charity.  He  saw  an  awful  smoke  pouring  from  his  bark  house  and 
being  told  what  it  was  he  burst  in  the  door,  threw  himself  into  the 
midst  of  the  fire  and  smoke,  threw  out  the  firebrands,  put  out  the 
fire,  and  gently  prevailed  upon  his  host  to  leave,  contrary  to  the  ex 
pectation  of  all  the  populace,  who  never  resist  the  fury  of  the  Demon 
of  Dreams.  The  man  continued  in  his  fury.  He  ran  through  the 
streets  and  cabins,  shouting  loudly  that  he  was  going  to  set  everything 
on  fire  to  avenge  the  death  of  the  Frenchman.  They  brought  him  a 
dog  to  be  the  victim  of  his  wrath  and  of  the  Demon  of  his  passion. 
4  That  is  not  enough,'  he  said,  '  to  wipe  out  the  shame  and  the  affront 
which  has  been  done  to  me  in  wishing  to  kill  a  Frenchman  lodging  in 
my  house.'  A  second  dog  was  brought  to  him,  and  he  was  appeased  at 
once  and  returned  home  as  quietly  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  .  .  . 


38  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

"  Our  host  wished  to  play  his  part  as  well  as  the  others.  He  dressed 
himself  like  a  Satyr,  covering  himself  with  corn  husks  from  head  to 
foot.  He  made  two  women  array  themselves  like  real  Megaras,  their 
hair  flying,  their  faces  black  as  coal,  their  bodies  covered  with  two 
wolf  skins,  each  woman  carrying  a  club  or  a  great  stake.  The  Satyr 
seeing  them  well  equipped  marched  through  our  cabin  singing  and 
howling  at  the  top  of  his  voice.  Then  climbing  on  the  roof  he  per 
formed  a  thousand  antics,  shouting  as  if  everything  had  gone  to 
destruction,  which  done,  he  descended,  marched  gravely  all  around  the 
town,  the  two  Megaras  leading  on  and  smashing  everything  they  met 
with  their  stakes.  .  .  . 

"  Scarce  had  our  Satyr  and  our  Megaras  disappeared  from  view 
when  a  woman  rushed  into  our  cabin.  She  was  armed  with  an  arque 
bus  which  she  had  obtained  by  her  dream.  She  shouted,  howled,  sang, 
saying  that  she  was  going  off  to  war  with  the  Eries,  that  she  would 
fight  them  and  bring  back  prisoners,  with  a  thousand  imprecations 
and  a  thousand  maledictions  if  the  thing1  did  not  come  to  pass  as  she 
had  dreamed.  A  warrior  followed  this  amazon.  He  carried  his  bow 
and  arrows  in  his  hand  and  a  dagger.  He  dances,  he  sings,  he  shouts, 
he  threatens ;  then  suddenly  he  rushes  at  a  woman  who  had  come  in 
to  see  this  comedy ;  he  levels  the  dagger  at  her  throat,  takes  her  by 
the  hair,  contents  himself  with  cutting  off  a  few  locks,  and  then 
withdraws  to  give  place  to  a  Diviner  who  had  dreamed  that  he  could 
find  everything  that  was  hidden.  He  was  ridiculously  dressed  and 
held  in  his  hand  a  sort  of  caduceus  which  he  used  to  point  out  the 
place  where  a  thing  wras  hidden.  Nevertheless  his  companion  who 
carried  a  pot  filled  with  some  liquor  or  other  had  to  fill  his  mouth 
with  it  and  blow  it  over  the  head  and  over  the  face,  over  the  hands 
and  over  the  caduceus  of  the  Diviner,  who  then  never  failed  to  find 
the  article  in  question.  That  is  all  I  can  tell. 

"  A  woman  came  next  with  a  mat  which  she  spread  out  and  arranged 
as  if  she  wished  to  catch  some  fish.  This  meant  that  we  must  give 
her  some  because  she  had  dreamed  it. 

"  Another  simply  laid  a  mattock  on  the  ground.  They  divined  that 
she  wanted  a  field  or  a  piece  of  ground.  That  was  just  what  she  had 
in  mind,  and  she  was  satisfied  with  five  furrows  for  planting  Indian 
corn. 

"After  that  they  put  before  us  a  little  grotesque  puppet.  We  de 
clined  it  and  it  was  placed  before  other  persons,  and  after  they  had 
mumbled  some  words  they  carried  it  off  without  further  ceremony. 

"One  of  the  chiefs  of  the  town  appeared  in  wretched  attire.  He 
was  all  covered  with  ashes,  and  because  no  one  guessed  his  dream, 
which  called  for  two  human  hearts,  he  caused  the  ceremony  to  be 
prolonged  by  a  day,  and  continued  his  mad  actions  during  all  the 
time.  He  entered  our  cabin,  where  there  are  several  fireplaces,  stopped 
at  the  first,  threw  ashes  and  coals  into  the  air,  and  at  the  second  and 
third  fires  did  the  same,  but  did  nothing  at  ours,  out  of  respect. 

"  Some  came  fully  armed  and  as  if  they  were  in  combat  with  the 
enemy,  posturing,  shouting,  and  scuffling  like  two  armies  in  battle. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  39 

"Others  march  in  bands,  and  perform  dances  with  contortions  of 
the  body  like  men  possessed.  In  short,  one  would  never  be  done,  if 
he  undertook  to  relate  everything  they  do  during  the  three  days  and 
three  nights  that  this  madness  lasts,  with  such  a  racket  that  one 
cannot  find  a  moment  of  quiet.  .  .  . 

"It  would  be  a  cruelty  and  a  sort  of  murder  not  to  give  a  man 
what  his  dream  called  for,  for  the  refusal  might  cause  his  death. 
Therefore  they  may  see  themselves  stripped  of  their  all  without  any 
hope  of  recompense.  For  whatever  they  give  is  never  returned  to 
them,  unless  they  dream  it  themselves,  or  pretend  to  dream  it.  In 
general  they  are  too  scrupulous  to  make  such  a  pretence,  which  would, 
as  they  suppose,  cause  all  sorts  of  misfortunes.  Yet  those  are  found 
who  disregard  their  scruples  and  enrich  themselves  by  a  clever 
fiction.  .  .  . 

"  A  poor  woman  was  not  so  fortunate  in  her  dream.  She  ran  about 
day  and  night  and  got  only  an  illness.  They  tried  to  cure  her  with 
the  ordinary  remedies  of  the  country,  which  are  emetics  of  certain 
roots  steeped  in  water,  but  they  made  her  drink  so  much  that  she 
died  immediately,  her  stomach  bursting  to  give  passage  to  two  kettles 
of  water  which  they  had  made  her  take. 

"  A  young  man  of  our  cabin  got  off  with  being  well  powdered.  He 
dreamed  that  he  was  buried  in  ashes.  When  he  woke  he  wished  his 
dream  to  come  true,  so  he  invited  ten  of  his  friends  to  a  feast  to 
fulfil  his  dream.  They  acquitted  themselves  excellently  of  this  com 
mission,  covering  him  with  ashes  from  head  to  foot  and  stuffing  them 
into  his  nose  and  into  his  ears  and  everywhere.  We  were  disgusted 
with  such  a  ridiculous  ceremony,  but  everyone  else  regarded  it  in 
silent  admiration  as  a  grand  mystery."35 

It  was  not  in  the  dream  festival  alone  that  the  dream  func 
tioned,  for  Tarenyawagon,  the  Master  of  Their  Lives,  might 
make  known  at  any  time  through  the  medium  of  a  dream  what 
was  his  will  and  what  was  needful  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Iroquois'  lives.  Hence,  whenever  the  dream  occurred,  that 
which  was  seen  in  the  dream  had  to  be  performed  immediately. 
One  Iroquois  found  it  necessary  in  fulfilling  his  dream  to  have 
his  house  burned,  while  another  had  to  have  his  own  legs 
roasted,  and  so  well  was  that  done  that  it  took  six  months  for 
him  to  recover.36  Fathers  Dablon  and  Chaumonot  left  another 

as  Morgan,  II  (note  95),  255-260.  The  original  is  given  in  XLII 
J.  R.  (1655-1656),  154-168.  Lloyd's  translation  differs  from  that 
given,  Hid.,  155-169.  Beauchamp  has  it  also  in  his  Iroquois  Trail, 
119-123.  Cf.  remarks  on  dreams  made  by  Wissler  in  Ceremonial 
Bundles,  72-103,  263 ;  and  in  his  Decorative  Art  of  the  Sioux  Indians, 
Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.,  Bull.  XVIII  (1902-1907),  247. 

SB  XL VII  J.  R.  (1661-1662),  179-181;  cf.  XLIII  J.  R.  (1656-1657), 
273. 


40  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

account  of  the  fulfilling  of  a  dream  during  the  performance 
of  so  practical  a  task  as  that  of  conducting  these  missionaries 
to  Onondaga.  One  Indian  had  a  horrible  dream.  It  was  so 
difficult  to  calm  him  in  order  that  the  party  could  go  on  that 
his  companions  had  to  resort  to  extreme  measures.  He 
dreamed  of  fighting  with  aquatic  animals,  so  his  friends  pre 
tended  they  were  as  mad  as  he  and  also  fought  with  animals 
living  in  the  water.  They  prepared  to  sweat  themselves  in 
order  to  get  him  to  do  likewise.  "  As  he  cried  and  sang  aloud 
during  the  process  of  sweating,  imitating  the  cry  of  the 
animals  with  which  he  was  fighting,  so  they  also  began  to  cry 
and  sing  aloud  the  cries  of  those  animals  which  they  pretended 
to  be  fighting,  every  one  striking  the  poor  fellow  in  the  cadence 
of  their  song.  Imagine  what  a  chorus  of  twenty  voices,  imitat 
ing  ducks,  teal  and  frogs,  and  what  a  sight  to  see  so  many  men 
pretending  to  be  mad  in  order  to  cure  a  mad  man.  They  suc 
ceeded  well."37 

One  of  the  most  important  functions  of  the  dream  was  to 
bring  assistance  to  the  youth  wno  had  attained  puberty  and 
was  about  to  tafce  up  the  responsibilities  of  manhood.  Re 
ligious  ceremcTmaTl^a'S  necessaiy  tu  imike  tleTtaiifthlTsuccess  of 
this  fateful  step,  and  it  emphasized  for  the  boy  as  nothing  else 
could  the  importance  of  man's  estate.  At  this  grave  time  the 
Iroquois  father  would  make  clear  to  his  son  the  importance 
of  the  Dream  Fast.  Then  the  youth,  according  to  custom,  pre 
pared  himself  for  the  dream  by  going  off  to  a  simple  lodge  in 
some  lonesome  spot  where  he  remained  for  at  least  a  week, 
fasting,  hunting  dangerous  animals  or  in  other  ways  seeking 
to  show  that  he  was  brave,  praying  and  hoping  for  a  dream. 
If  the  dream  spirit  appeared  it  probably  would  point  out  to 
the  lad  how  he  could  best  serve  his  community.  He  was  to 
be  a  mighty  hunter  or  a  shaman  or  a  warrior.  It  also  would 
tell  him  the  object  or  charm  whose  spirit  would  protect  him 
throughout  life,  and  that  object  was  to  be  cherished.  Such 
a  guardian  spirit  has  been  called  the  oki.  Mrs.  Converse 
called  the  dream  spirit  the  spirit  of  the  clan,  saying  that  the 
spirit  which  appeared  in  the  dream  really  was  the  spirit  of 
the  clan  into  which  the  boy  had  been  born.  If  the  youth  was 
so  unfortunate  as  not  to  liaic.  ai  visitation-  from  the  dream 

37  Cf.  XLII  J.  R.  (1655-1656),  65-69. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  41 

spirit,  the  chiefs,  who  kept  in  touch  with  him,  permitted  him 
to  return  to  the  village.  But  he  felt  disgraced  and  was  un 
happy  because  he  had  no  dream  object  to  invoke  in  time  of 
need.38 

In  order  that  the  continued  good  will  of  the  guardian  spirit 
or  oki  be  assured,  the  Iroquois  made  it  presents.  The  old 
being  so  important  it  was  natural  that  the  dream  object  asso 
ciated  with  it  should  be  carried  as  a  charm.  How  efficacious 
these  charms,  or  skins,  feathers  or  other  portions  of  the  dream 
animal  or  plant,  were  believed  to  be,  is  illustrated  by  the  fact 
that  when  Gansevoort  captured  the  baggage  of  the  Iroquois 
at  the  battle  of  Oriskany  they  lost  all  heart  in  the  campaign 
because  their  charms  at  the  same  time  fell  into  his  hands.39 
Furthermore,  dreams  possessed  curative  powers.  The  Jesuits 
state  that  the  medicine  men  often  would  have  the  sick  dream 
to  effect  a  cure.  "It  frequently  occurs,  however,  that  a  hot 
fever,  by  causing  grotesque  and  senseless  dreams,  gives  the 
poor  Medicine-men  much  trouble."40  Dream  objects  them 
selves  helped  to  effect  cures  and  therefore  were  preserved  care 
fully.  "When  they  are  ill,  they  cover  themselves  with  these, 
or  put  them  near  at  hand,  as  a  defense  against  the  attacks  of 
the  disease."  Strong  as  was  this  faith  in  dreams  it  is  not 
surprising  that  in  the  strength  of  good  health  the  Iroquois 
sometimes  paid  no  heed  to  them.41 

ss  Charlevoix :  Voyage,  II,  110. 
Sagard,  I,  455;  Lafitau,  I,  126,  145,  336-341,  370. 
Loskiel,  Pt.  I,  39-40,  63  ;  Heckewelder,  ch.  XXXIII. 
Brinton :  Myths  of  the  New  World,  45. 
Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour.,  XIV,  345,  346. 

Converse,  107-108.  Myth  called  "Jis-go-ga,  the  Robin."  There  is  a 
beautiful  picture  of  "The  dawn  drink  of  the  dream  faster  "  accom 
panying  a  fine  tale  of  initiation,  107-110. 

The  role  of  the  totem  in  Iroquois  religion  is  not  known  definitely. 
Usually  it  has  been  confused  with  the  oki  by  writers,  while  the  Iro 
quois  legends  themselves  are  silent  on  the  matter.  Dr.  Goldenweiser 
maintains  that,  if  the  totem  did  function  in  religious  ceremonial,  all 
evidence  has  disappeared  so  that  no  proof  can  be  given.  Goldenweiser, 
u.  s.,  Hep.  for  1912,  466-467 ;  cf.  470  and  Rep.  for  1913,  371. 

39  Morgan,  II   (note  62),  233. 

40  XL VII  J.  R.  (1661-1662),  181. 
41LIV  J.  R.  (1669-1671),  65-67,  101. 


42  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

SOULS. 

The  Iroquois  reactions  to  dreams,  coma,  faints  and  the  like 
were  sometimes  religious  and  sometimes  matter  of  fact.  An 
Iroquois,  for  example,  was  familiar  with  the  fact  that  from 
time  to  time  the  soul  left  the  body  and  visited  some. spot.  Such 
a  dream  was  a  phenomenon  easily  understood  and  explained. 
He  had  little  or  no  religious  feeling  about  it.  But  when  he 
and  his  fellows  gathered  together  in  a  cabin  on  a  dark  night 
and,  about  a  dulled  fire,  prayed  until  the  invited  shades  of 
their  dead  returned  to  them,  the  religious  attitude  was  evoked 
and  a  religious  act  was  performed.  To  recognize  a  given 
belief  or  practice  concerning  the  soul  as  religious  or  not  is 
sometimes  impossible  for  the  Iroquois  himself  made  no  such 
distinctions.  Genuine  understanding,  therefore,  of  such  Iro 
quois  notions  and  practices  concerning  souls  as  appear  to  be 
religious  can  not  be  attained  without  some  knowledge  also  of 
those  other  notions  and  practices  concerning  the  soul  that  in 
fact  were  mingled  inextricably  with  the  religious.42 

By  the  time  the  Whites  became  acquainted  with  the  Iroquois 
some  of  the  peculiar  phenomena  of  human  and  animal  be- 

«  Hewitt:  "  Iroquoian  Concept  of  the  Soul,"  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  VIII, 

107-116.     This  fine  article  intermingles  fact  and  interpretation.     The 

facts    are    not    gainsaid,    but    the    interpretations    are    not    always 

acceptable. 

Charlevoix:  Voyage,  II,  115-118,  146-148.  He  discusses  the  concept  of 
the  soul,  its  future  and  the  practices  connected  with  the  dead,  in 
cluding  the  celebration  of  the  Festival  of  the  Dead. 

Lafitau,  I,  359-360,  361,  363-367,  on  beliefs  concerning  the  souls  of 
human  beings  and  of  animals,  and  the  relation  of  the  soul  to 
dreams;  II,  386-458,  states  in  detail  the  practices  connected  with 
death ;  446-458  give  the  duodecennial  Feast  of  the  Dead,  including 
the  collection  of  bones,  making  of  presents,  chanting,  etc.  Cf.  399. 
413-416;  420. 

La  Hontan :  Voyages  to  N.  A.,  II,  435-436,  471-474,  on  ideas  concerning 
the  soul  and  the  disposition  of  the  dead. 

Sagard,  I,  457-458,  on  the  soul  and  its  future ;  II,  ch.  XLV ;  ch.  XLVI 
describes  the  Feast  of  the  Dead. 

Bacqueville,  III,  6-11  on  the  soul  as  the  agent  of  desire ;  etc. 

Hale :  Book  of  Rites,  70-73.  For  the  soul  in  legends  see  Converse, 
94-96;  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  I,  47-48  (cf.  Converse,  84-87)  ;  76.,  I,  195,  196, 
200;  Am.  A.  and  O.  Jour.,  XIV,  346-347;  Am.  Anthr.,  XI,  286-287; 
Iroquois  Trail,  109-112  passim. 

Other  accounts  of  practices  are  referred  to  in  notes  45-52  below. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  43 

havior  had  led  to  a  crystallization  of  speculation  with  regard 
to  the  psychic  self.  Souls  wftt£Lrefiusd..yetjnaterial,  shadow- 
like  ^e^  with  bodily  form  and  with  all  bodily  organs  and  other^ 
parts,  and  keen-sighted  only  at  night.  To  some  a  soul  was 
mortal,  but  others  said  it  could,  not  .be  killed^ Jlivery  pers6n~ 
possessed  one  sensitive  soul  which  dwelt  in  the  very  marrow 
of  the  bones  and  which  animated  the  body.  Even  after  death 
it  lived  on  in  the  skeleton.  This  sensitive  soul  was  usually^ 
malevolent;  being  fond  of  human  flesh,  w^hich  it  hunted.  In 
states  of  violent  passion  the  sensitive  soul  dominated  the  body.  / 
De  Quens,  writing  of  the  Iroquois  in  the  Relation  of  1655-1656 
said,  "  These  people  believe  that  sadness,  anger,  and  all  violent 
passions  expel  the  rational  soul  from  the  body,  which,  mean 
while,  is  animated  only  by  the  sensitive  soul,  whichjwe s_  havejii^ 
common  with  animals."43  In  addition  to  the  sensitive  soul 
every  person  possessed  one  or  more  ratiojial  o_r  intelligent  souls  I 
which  dwelt  in  the  head.  This  reasonable  soul  was  also  carni-  ] 
vorous,  but  it  rarely  ate  human  flesh.  It  could  make  its  wishes  | 
known  and  resembled,  in  body  and  desires,  the  very  man  him 
self.  The  intelligent  soul  could  leave  the  body  and  return  at 
will,  going  anywhere  in  remarkably  short  time,  living  a  life 
time  in  remarkably  few  moments  and  never  getting  lost. 
Usually  such  trips  had  an  object  in  view.  There  was  some 
thing  the  soul  wanted.  When  apparently  without  any  out 
ward  stimulus  a  person  suddenly  desired  something,  the  need 
was  that  of  the  soul  which  made  its  wish  known  to  him  because 
it  was  for  his  good.  Tarenyawagon,  said  the  Wise  Ones,  in- 
Jormed  the  soul  of  what  was  needed  through  the  medium  of 
dreams.  At  death  the  intelligent  soul  lived  in  or  near  the 
corpse,  wandering  about  the  village  by  night  in  search  of  food 
and  devouring  what  it  could  find  unprotected.  To  make  it 
quiescent  a  ceremony  must  be  performed.  After  this  Feast  of 
the  Dead  it  would  begin  the  difficult  journey  westward  to  join 
the  souls  of  members  of  its  own  tribe  in  their  village  there. 
In  that  village  it  would  live  much  as  it  had  when  incorporated 
in  a  body.  Of  course,  so  long  and  so  difficult  a  journey  was 
beyond  the  powers  of  endurance  of  the  souls  of  children  and 
of  old  and  weak  persons,  so  these  remained  about  the  village. 
Otherwise  unaccountable  slapping  of  flaps  and  banging  of 

43XLII  J.  R.  (1632-1657),  51. 


44  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

doors  about  the  house  indicated  the  comings  and  goings  of 
these  harmless  souls.  Just  after  death  souls  could  hear  and 
understand.  They  could  revisit  their  old  abodes.  Such  a  soul 
might  be  born  again  in  some  child.  Sometimes  the  struggle 
of  souls  to  get  to  the  surface  of  the  earth  caused  an  earth 
quake.44  Finally,  every  animal,  bird,  fish  and  insect  had  a 
soul,  good  or  bad  according  as  the  living  creature  was  con 
sidered  good  or  bad.  The  soul  of  each  of  these  creatures  had 
a  bodily  form  similar  to  that  of  the  animal  itself.  Such  a 
soul  lived  after  the  death  of  the  body,  could  see  how  the  body 
was  treated  and  would  act  accordingly,  either  urging  their 
living  kin  to  permit  themselves  to  be  taken  for  food  or  urging 
them  to  escape  the  hunter. 

Since  the  soul  was  to  live  in  the  "West  as  it  had  lived  here, 
it  must  have  suitable  weapons,  food  and  raiment;  so  with  the 
body  were  buried  such  things.  A  fine  description  of  the  cere 
monies  following  the  death  of  an  Iroquois  has  been  given  by  a 
Jesuit. 

"As  soon  as  anyone  dies  in  a  cabin,  one  hears  in  it  the  cries  and 
lamentations  uttered  by  the  assembled  relatives  of  all  ages  and  both 
sexes ;  and  so  frightful  are  they  that  one  would  take  that  lugubrious 
uproar,  which  lasts  for  months  and  even  for  entire  years  (that  is,  the 
ceremony  is  repeated  until  the  decennial  or  duodecennial  Festival  of 
the  Dead  is  celebrated),  from  the  howlings  of  Hell.  Meanwhile. — after 
the  dead  man  is  buried,  and  his  grave  is  filled  with  provisions  for  the 
sustenance  of  his  soul,  and  after  a  sort  of  sacrifice  has  been  offered 
to  him  by  burning  a  certain  quantity  of  corn, — the  elders,  with  the 
friends  and  relatives  of  the  deceased  are  invited  to  a  feast,  to  which 
each  one  brings  his  presents  to  console  the  most  afflicted.  .  .  .  One  of 
the  most  notable  of  the  Elders,  with  grave  demeanor,  exclaimed  in  a 
lugubrious  voice :  .  .  .  '  Alas,  alas,  my  beloved  relatives !  I  have 
neither  mind  nor  words  wherewith  to  console  you.  I  can  do  nothing 
but  mingle  my  tears  with  yours,  and  complain  of  the  severity  of  the 
illness  that  treats  us  so  ill.  .  .  .  But  take  courage  my  relatives ! 
Let  us  not  cause  sorrow  any  longer  to  so  honorable  a  guest  (the 
French)  ;  but  let  us  dry  up  the  tears  of  Onnontio  (Iroquois  name  for 
French  Governor-General)  by  wiping  away  our  own.  Here  is  a  present 
that  will  dry  up  their  source.'  .  .  .  The  ceremony  concluded  with  a 

4*  The  inconsistency  is  very  noticeable.  Why  were  these  souls  under 
ground  and  not  in  the  realms  of  the  shades  in  the  West?  How  can 
the  persistence  of  these  beliefs  be  reconciled  with  the  later  notion  that 
the  sky  was  the  final  dwelling  place  and  the  Milky  Way  the  road 
thereto? 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  45 

feast,  the  best  morsels  of  which  were  reserved  for  the  sick  persons  of 
rank  in  the  Village.  As  all  this  could  not  arrest  the  tears  and  the 
cries  of  one  mother,  one  of  the  relatives,  in  order  to  testify  his  devo 
tion  by  consoling  her,  disinterred  the  dead  body;  and,  after  clothing 
it  with  new  garments,  he  threw  the  grave-clothes  into  the  fire.  This 
he  did  two  or  three  times  on  different  occasions  until  he  found  noth 
ing  but  the  bare  bones,  which  he  wrapped  up  in  a  covering  to  present 
them  to  the  afflicted  woman.  Finally,  some  time  after  these  cere 
monies,  the  liberality  of  those  who  had  given  presents  of  consolation 
is  acknowledged  by  distributing  among  them  the  effects  of  the 
deceased."^ 

The  great  Festival  of  the  Dead  formerly  was  held  once  in 
twelve  years  and  was  a  great  ceremony  of  reinterment,  a 
solemn  "  feast  of  the  dead,"  as  the  Iroquois  called  it.  The 
bodies  of  those  of  the  tribe  who  had  died  during  the  preceding 
twelve  years  were  exhumed,  if  they  had  been  buried,  or  were 
taken  down  from  the  scaffold  on  which  they  had  been  laid. 
The  decaying  corpses  and  the  clean  bones  of  those  long  dead 
were  placed  into  one  large  pit  which  had  been  lined  with 
robes  made  of  beaver  skins,  the  most  valuable  of  all  Iroquois 
furs.  Such  valued  possessions  as  wampum,  copper  implements 
and  earthenware  were  thrown  into  the  pit,  and  then  the  grave 
was  filled  with  earth.  While  this  ceremony  was  going  on, 
rich  presents  of  all  kinds  that  had  been  gathered  during  the 
past  twelve  years,  were  distributed  among  the  people  by  the  . 
relatives  of  the  deceased.  In  this  distribution  it  often 
happened  that  valuable  fur  robes  were  cut  and  torn  into  pieces. 
To  lavishly  display  wealth  and  to  recklessly  destroy  it  were 
deemed  honors  due  to  the  shades  of  the  departed.  This  feast 
disappeared  during  the  seventeenth  century  and  was  replaced 
in  part  by  the  Condolence.46 

At  sundry  times,  probably  before  the  summer  and  the  winter 
seasons,  a  feast  was  spread  for  the  souls  of  the  departed,  who, 
if  bidden,  would  revisit  the  habitations  of  men.  A  well-known 
wampum-keeper  of  the  Iroquois  writing  in  the  last  century, 
quaintly  described  this  ceremony  through  his  "messenger,"  a 
letter. 

45XLIII  J.  R.  (1656-1657),  267-271.  See  further  Morgan,  II,  276; 
Clark,  I,  51-52;  Lafitau,  II,  339,  413-416,  420,  446-458;  Charlevoix: 
Voyage,  II,  146-148 ;  Sagard,  II,  639  sq.,  654-657 ;  Bacqueville,  III,  8-11. 

46  Hale :  Book  of  Rites,  72-73  (see  below  pp.  75  sq.  and  note  3,  p.  76). 
Cf.  X  J.  R.  (1636),  143.  Handsome  Lake  pointed  out  the  evils  con 
nected  with  burial  rites.  See  below  p.  64  and  Parker:  Code,  107-112. 


46  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

"  I  am  John  Buck's  messenger.  Therefore  listen.  John  Buck  says 
in  olden  times  of  my  forefathers  was  able  to  recall  their  departed 
relatives  to  see  them  again,  the  living  ones  will  make  one  accord 
whatever  the  number  they  may  be  will  get  a  feast  at  a  certain  house 
for  the  dead  ones,  and  when  the  living  ones  will  assemble  at  the 
appointed  place  each  of  them  will  take  a  sliver  off  the  bark  door 
where  it  turns,  this  at  their  different  one's  houses,  and  enter  noise 
lessly  in  the  house  where  the  feast  is  spread  out  for  the  dead,  and 
they  will  now  all  set  down  next  to  the  wall  of  the  house  on  the  ground 
all  around  the  house,  and  the  feast  is  spread  out  in  the  centre  of  the 
house,  and  one  is  appointed  as  a  speaker  to  address  the  Great  Creator*? 
at  intervals  he  would  throw  an  Indian  Tobacco  on  the  fire,  he  will 
ask  the  Creator  to  send  their  dead  relatives,  for  they  are  desirous  to 
see  them  again,  and  when  he  ends  it,  his  speaking,  he  will  sit  down 
again,  and  they  will  let  the  fire  go  down  till  the  light  ceases,  so  that  in 
the  house  becomes  dark  and  no  one  is  allowed  to  speak  or  to  make 
any  noise,  and  in  a  little  while  they  will  have  people  coming  outside, 
and  they  will  enter  the  house  and  will  set  themselves  around  the 
spread  feast,  and  the  assembled  living  ones  will  wait  until  the  dead 
ones  are  about  done  eating,  then  the  living  ones  will  kindle  the  slivers 
of  bark  which  they  have  brought  with  them,  and  the  dead  are  now 
seen  through  this  light.  Here  is  a  string  of  wampum.  .  .  .*» 

I  am  your  friend, 

CHIEF  JOHN  BUCK. 

Fire  keeper  of  Six  Nations,  Canada."*^ 

A  year  after  a  death,  if  the  bereaved  family  asked  therefor, 
the  Dance  of  the  Dead  was  given.  This  dance  was  performed 
secretly  for  one  whole  night  by  women. 

There  were  several  practices  connected  with  beliefs  about 
souls  that  were  not  a  part  of  special  ceremonies.  Since  souls 
remained  for  a  time  near  the  village  and  needed  food,  it  was 
customary  to  place  edibles  on  the  graves  or  in  separate  re 
ceptacles  on  the  dining  table.  For  the  spirits  of  the  weak  and 
the  old  who  could  not  go  to  the  West,  corn  was  heaped  up 
from  time  to  time  in  a  little  pile.  These  spirits,  however,  often 
provided  food  for  themselves  by  hunting  and  by  planting  corn, 

*7  Since  the  idea  of  a  Great  Creator  was  not  Iroquoian  it  may  be 
that  in  olden  days  the  shades  were  addressed  directly,  if  at  all. 

«s  The  giving  of  wampum  solemnly  attested  the  truth  of  the  state 
ments  of  the  giver  or  he  or  they  whom  the  giver  represented.  It  was 
like  our  formal  signature  or  seal. 

wlroquois  Trail,  108-109.  Buck,  as  official  wampum-keeper,  was  in 
a  position  better  to  know  of  his  people's  past  than  others,  for  the 
wampum  was  the  official  record,  each  string  being  a  document  the 
reading  of  which  fell  to  the  official  keeper. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  47 

which  is  recognizable  as  ghost-  or  squirrel-corn.     When  a 
nursing  child  was  taken  out  at  night  the  mother  rubbed  its 
face  with  some  white  ashes  to  keep  spirits  away,  for  having 
come  so  recently  from  the  spirit  world,  the  baby  could  converse 
with  them  and  might  be  enticed.     A  more  pronounced  re 
ligious  element  appears  in  the  practices  connected  with  the 
vanquishing  of  the  discontented  souls  of  those  who  had  been 
buried  improperly,  or  of  the  revengeful  souls  of  those  done  to 
death  by  violence  whether  torture  or  some  other  form,  or  of 
the  malevolent  souls  of  sorcerers.     Such  were  feared  and  were 
scared  away  from  the  village  by  the  loud  crying  of  "Haii, 
Haii,  Haii,"50  and  by  much  banging  and  knocking  and  doing 
of  violent  acts,  the  total  uproar  being  very  effective  for  the 
purpose  of  inspiring  both  terror  and  the  desire  to  get  away, 
in  the  hearts  of  lurking  ghosts.     De  Quens  mentioned  that  in 
states  of  violent  passion  the  rational  soul  was  driven  from  the 
body.     So,  said  he,  when  a  person  was  angry  or  was  seized 
with  a  fierce  desire  for  revenge,  the  people  would  make  him  a 
present  in  order  "to  restore  the  rational  soul  to  the  seat  of 
reason."51     Since  the  souls  of  dead  animals  were  jealous  of 
the  treatment  accorded  their  corpses  and  could  make  hunting 
bad,  those  creatures  that  were  useful  as  food  or  in  other  ways 
were  handled  carefully.    Dogs,  for  example,  were  not  allowed 
to  gnaw  the  bones  of  a  deer,  an  elk,  a  beaver  or  any  other  food 
or  pelt  animal  since  the  soul  of  that  animal  would  be  dis 
pleased  and  therefore  would  spoil  a  hunt.52     Sometimes,  to 
prevent  any  ill-treatment  befalling  the  bones  of  such  animals, 
the  Iroquois  would  preserve  them  carefully  or  cast  them  into  a 
running  stream. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Wizards  and  witches  dealt  with  and  received  power  from 
evil  spirits.53  They  could  transform  themselves  into  animals 
such  as  hogs,  dogs,  and  particularly  owls.  To  bring  about 
such  a  change  a  mysterious  charm  was  used,  of  which  the  fol- 

50XLII  J.  R.  (1655-1556),  137-139. 

51/6.,  51. 

52  How  very  "  human  "  animals  often  were,  is  shown  by  many  tales 
in  Converse;  for  example,  114-116,  118-124,  151-152.  Cf.  Barbeau, 
passim. 

63  Cf.  Parker:  Code,  27  note  3. 


48  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

lowing  is  an  illustration.  Two  bits  of  witch  medicine  acquired 
recently  by  M.  R.  Harrington  consisted  "of  bits  of  woody 
root,  one,  the  larger  and  older,  being  about  an  inch  and  a 
quarter  long  by  half  as  thick,  with  the  surface  fairly  covered 
with  tiny  carved  faces  of  men  and  animals ;  while  the  smaller, 
about  half  as  large,  bears  but  one  carved  face."54  The  name 
of  the  charm,  otkantra  or  utgontra,  clearly  includes  the  term 
otgon,  meaning  evil  power. 

Properly  speaking,  the  Iroquois  had  no  priestly  class.  In 
olden  days,  at  festivals  and  such  other  occasions  as  necessitated 
-  a  leader,  an  old  man  acted  in  that  capacity.  There  was,  how 
ever,  a  class  of  men  who  performed  few  of  the  ordinary  duties 
of  warriors  and  who  were  appealed  to  in  time  of  need,  be  it 
illness,  impending  war  or  other  crisis  whose  outcome  could  be 
affected  by  religious  or  magical  practices.  Charlevoix,  in 
speaking  of  the  preparation  for  war,  mentions  among  other 
things,  the  part  played  by  the  medicine  men.  They  dance  and 
i  sing  in  order  that  Agreskoue  aid  the  Iroquois  warriors,  and 
i  thus  they  mitigate  risks  and  improve  the  chances  for  success. 
Father  Jogues  has  told  above  how  an  old  man  offered  some 
stag-meat  to  Agreskoue,  and  it  may  be  inferred  that  he  was  a 
shaman.55  According  to  the  Jesuit  Relations  the  chief  func 
tions  of  such  men  were  connected  with  illness.  Illness  was 
caused  by  evil  spirits.  Toothache,  for  example,  was  caused 
by  demons.  When  Father  Millet  removed  a  sufferer's  decayed 
tooth  thus  stopping  the  pain,  he  caused  great  excitement56  for 
the  common  means  was,  after  preliminary  fasting  by  the 
patient  and  after  personal  exaltation  on  the  part  of  the  medi 
cine  man,  to  draw  out  the  power  of  the  demon  by  abstracting 
from  the  patient  bits  of  wood  or  leaves  or  stones  or  other 
objects.57  Some  shamans  had  live  crystals  within  them  which 
could  be  expelled  through  the  nose  or  mouth.  If  the  crystal 
were  placed  in  a  gourd  of  water  it  would  make  visible  the 
apparition  of  a  person  who  had  bewitched  another.  By  apply 
ing  the  crystal  to  a  bewitched  person,  hairs,  straws,  leaves, 
pebbles  and  other  small  objects  could  be  extracted,  thus  reliev- 

s*  Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.,  XI,  87. 

55  Vid.  p.  30  above. 

seLVII  J.  R.   (1672-1673),  147-149. 

57  Cf.  p.  87  sq.  and  note  30,  p.  88  below. 


UNAFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  49 

ing  the  sufferer.  Sometimes  a  medicine  man,  after  boiling 
certain  roots  or  herbs  in  a  small  kettle,  held  a  blanket  over  his 
head  and  the  kettle.  Then  he  could  see  clearly  the  image  of 
a  witch  in  the  liquid.58 

Among  the  Iroquois,  as  among  so  many  other  peoples, 
women  were  taboo  to  all  during  the  menstrual  period,  particu 
larly  at  its  first  occurrence.  At  that  time  the  girl  had  to  live 
alone  for  several  days  in  a  secluded  hut,  where  she  fasted  and 
performed  difficult  tasks.59  At  puberty,  also,  she  was  given 
a  string  with  which  to  tie  her  limbs  together  above  the  knee 
when  she  retired.  This  string  she  kept  all  her  life  and  used 
when  she  wished.  No  man  dared  to  untie  it.  Pregnant 
women  and  those  with  children  just  born  were  taboo,  and  their 
husbands  abstained  from  them.  Women  in  periodic  condition 
had  to  leave  the  house  when  a  medicine  man  was  about  to  cure 
a  person  who  was  ill.  Hunting  medicines  and  weapons  were 
taboo  to  women.  A  faithless  wife  would  bring  bad  luck  and 
misfortune  upon  her  husband  no  matter  where  he  happened 
to  be.  Except  in  these  cases,  that  emotional  fear  of  women  at 
certain  times,  which  is  so  often  exhibited  in  other  parts  of  the  |\.  i 
world  through  the  use  of  taboos,  rarely  was  to  be  noticed 
among  the  Iroquois.  A  taboo  widely  observed  among  many 
tribes,  for  example,  was  that  men  about  to  go  on  a  hunt  must 
be  continent,  if  they  would  succeed.  But  an  Iroquois  off  for 
a  hunt  might  take  along  his  wife  or,  if  she  did  not  want  to 
go,  a  captive  or  a  "  free  woman."  In  many  parts  of  the  world, 
also,  a  warrior  who  desired  success  had  to  be  continent;  but 
among  the  Iroquois  that  was  not  the  case,  although  over-in 
dulgence  was  frowned  upon  as  being  unduly  weakening.60 

58  Witches  and  shamans  are  discussed  in 
Charlevoix :  Voyage,  II,  127-128,  136. 
Lafitau,  I,  373-394. 

De  Cost  Smith :  "  Witchcraft  .  .  .  ,"  in  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  I,  184-194 ;  II, 

277-281. 

Mrs.  Smith,  ch.  III. 
Converse,  87-92. 

Beauchamp  in  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  V,  223-229. 
Morgan,  I,  156. 
Clark,  I,  42-47. 

59  Goldenweiser,  u.  s.  (1912),  470.     Cf.  Charlevoix:  Voyage,  II,  41. 

eo  Charlevoix,  ib. 
Lafitau,  I,  257,  262. 
XLI  J.  R.  (1654-1656),  177. 


50  IROQUOIS  KELIGION. 

Taboos  of  other  kinds,  but  like  the  above  aiming  either  to 
avoid  some  undefined  evil  or  to  insure  success,  were  employed 
from  time  to  time.     Some  of  them  were  religious  prohibitions 
such  as  the  interdict  laid  upon  food  during  a  boy's  initiation. 
Others  were  akin  to  the  religious  but  now  appear  to  be  mainly 
magical,  such  as  the  prohibition  of  the  performance  of  the 
Condolence  Ceremony  while  crops  were  growing,  or  the  man- 
.      date  that  the  white  dog  used  in  the  New  Year's  Festival  must 
\\f    be  killed  without  shedding  a  drop  of  its  blood.     Similar  in 
nature  were  such  other  taboos  as  that  a  salt  spring  never  must 
,^  be  tasted  (the  Iroquois  did  not  know  of  salt  until  the  Whites 
*  came),  that  the  bones  of  animals  valuable  as  food  or  for  their 
^  NT  I  pelts  never  must  be  eaten  by  dogs,  that  myths  should  not  be 
^  \  f  told  in  the  summer,  and  that  a  man  never  must  witness  the 
^  \      performance   by   the   women,   of   the   Dance    of    the    Dead. 
*vj        Finally,  some  taboos  were  chiefly  social  prohibitions,  of  which 
the  outstanding  illustration  was  the  ban  upon  the  marriage 
of  individuals  of  the  same  clan  system.     On  the  whole  taboos 
appear  not  to  have  been  widely  used  by  the  Iroquois. 


CHAPTER  III. 

IROQUOIS    RELIGION. 

(CHIEFLY  IN  AND  AFTER  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  AND  AFFECTED 
BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.) 

DIVERGENCE  OF  CHRISTIAN  AND  IROQUOIS  POINTS  OF  VlEW. 

To  know  all  the  changes  in  the  Iroquois  religion  wrought  by 
the  influence  of  the  Whites  before  the  nineteenth  century  is 
impossible  because  the  material  bearing  upon  the  subject  is  so 
very  scanty.  The  myths  help  somewhat.  But  their  age  is 
often  so  indeterminate,  and  internal  evidence  alone  is  not  proof 
positive.  The  many  volumes  containing  the  sources  for  colo 
nial  New  York  probably  give  no  more  information  about  the 
problem  than  the  few  statements  which  will  be  mentioned 
later.  There  remain  but  Heckewelder,  whose  main  interest 
was  in  the  Delawares,  the  Jesuits,  whose  work  among  the 
Iroquois  wTas  discontinued  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  Loskiel,  whose  treatment  is  brief  and  who,  like 
Heckewelder,  deals  with  the  later  decades  of  that  century  and 
with  the  Indians  of  the  Middle  East. 

Three  facts  characterized  the  Iroquois  attitude  toward  Chris 
tian  teaching.  The  Iroquois,  worldly  in  thought  and  interest, 
interpreted  the  words  of  missionaries  literally.  They  expected 
peace,  good-will  and  success  here  and  now.  Contrary  to  their 
expectations,  however,  they  saw  the  Huron  converts  to  Chris 
tianity  go  to  their  death  while  they,  the  pagans,  caused  that 
death,  and  prospered!1  Moreover,  the  white  people  them 
selves  failed  to  guide  their  living  by  their  preaching.  This 
Indian  complaint  is  noted  by  Heckewelder  whose  wording  of 
it  portrays  the  Indian  interpretation  of  missionary  teaching. 

"  And  yet  these  white  men  would  always  be  telling  us  of  their  great 
Book  which  God  had  given  to  them,  they  would  persuade  us  that 
every  man  was  good  who  believed  in  what  the  Book  said,  and  every 
man  was  bad  who  did  not  believe  in  it.  They  told  us  a  great  many 

i  See  p.  36. 

51 


52  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

things,  which  they  said  were  written  in  the  good  Book,  and  wanted 
us  to  believe  it  all.  We  would  probably  have  done  so,  if  we  had  seen 
them  practise  what  they  pretended  to  believe,  and  act  according  to 
the  good  words  which  they  told  us.  But  no!  While  they  held  their 
big  Book  in  one  hand,  in  the  other  they  had  murderous  weapons,  guns 
and  swords,  wherewith  to  kill  us,  poor  Indians !  Ah !  and  they  did  so 
too,  they  killed  those  who  believed  in  their  Book,  as  well  as  those  who 
did  not.  They  made  no  distinction !  "2 

Secondly,  the  Indian  set  himself  up  as  the  standard  and 
measured  thereby  the  ways  of  the  white  people. 

"The  Great  Spirit,  knowing  the  wickedness  of  their  (the  Whites') 
disposition,  found  it  necessary  to  give  them  a  great  Book,  and  taught 
them  how  to  read  it,  that  they  might  know  and  observe  what  he 
wished  them  to  do  and  to  abstain  from.  But  they,  the  Indians,  have 
no  need  of  any  such  book  to  let  them  know  the  will  of  their  Maker ; 
they  find  it  engraved  on  their  own  hearts ;  they  have  had  sufficient 
discernment  given  to  them  to  distinguish  good  from  evil,  and  by 
following  that  guide,  they  are  sure  not  to  err."s 

The  third  fact  is  of  great  importance.  The  Iroquois  view  of 
Christianity  was  not  Christian.  It  was  Indian  or  pagan.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  the  Iroquois  lived  in  a  small  universe 
in  which  also  dwelt  a  miscellaneous  host  of  spirits  of  diverse 
nature  and  character.  Their  wealth  comprised  but  skins,  a 
few  tools  and  such,  and  their  interests  were  concerned  mainly 
with  matters  of  food,  war  and  success,  and  good  fortune  in 
this  life.  In  such  a  milieu,,  how  could  they  comprehend  the 
teachings  of  missionaries  from  Europe  to  whom  life's  emphasis 
was  upon  Christian  faith,  Christian  love  and  Christian  duty?* 
Father  Millet  saw  the  barrier. 

"  Faith  holds  The  understanding  Captive,  and  strives  to  subject  man 
to  the  duties  of  a  true  Christian ;  but  The  Iroquois  cannot  endure  The 
slightest  Thing  in  the  world  that  trammels  Him.  The  nature  of  the 
savage  is  to  live  as  he  pleases,  and  to  follow  strange  maxims  ^nl^-in 
go  far  as  They  suit  him.  .  .  .  The  Iroquois  is  not  guided  by  reasons. 
The  first  idea  that  he  has  of  Things  is  the  sole  light  that  illumines 
Him.  ...  As  a  rule,  they  believe  only  what  they  see.  To  convert  The 
upper  Iroquois,  it  would  be  necessary  to  subdue  Them  to  The  faith 
by  two  arms,  as  it  were — one  of  gold,  and  The  other  of  iron ;  I  mean 
to  say,  to  win  Them  by  presents,  and  to  keep  Them  in  subjection  by 

2  Heckewelder,  188. 

3/&.,  187. 

*Cf.  Boyle,  in  Jour.  Anthr.  Inst.,  XXX  (n.s.,  Ill),  263-273. 


APFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  53 

The  fear  of  arms.  .  .  .  Only  The  fear  of  some  evil,  or  The  hope  of 
some  temporal^ j£ood  can  determine  Them  to  embrace  our  religion."5 

Such  notions  and  practices,  therefore,  as  might  be  borrowed 
from  Christian  teachings  would  be  subject  to  alteration  before 
they  could  fit  Iroquois  conditions  and  Iroquois  ways  of  looking 
at  things.  Some  of  the  beliefs  and  practices  of  the  mission 
aries  either  did  or  seemed  to  harmonize  with  Iroquois  ways  of 
living  and  thinking.  Like  the  missionary  the  native  had  his 
fasts  and  feasts,  his  solemn  ceremonies  and  deities.6  That  is, 
there  was  some  common  ground  upon  which  the  missionary 
could  work  and  obtain  results. 

CHRISTIAN   INFLUENCES  APPARENT  BEFORE  THE   NINETEENTH 

CENTURY. 

3£arly  missionaries  relate  that  the  idea  of  a  Great  Spirit  as 
omnipotent  and  as  ruler  over  all  was  not  aboriginal.  In  1624 
Father  Le  Caron  said,  " '  Their  language,  natural  enough  for 
anything  else,  is  so  sterile  on  this  point  that  we  can  find  no 
terms  to  express  the  Divinity,  nor  any  of  our  mysteries,  not 
even  the  most  common.'"7  Sagard,  a  contemporary  of  Le 
Caron,  said  of  the  Hurons  and  Canadians  that  they  "  Seem 
to  have  neither  customs  nor  practices  relating  to  God  that  we 
could  find  out."8  About  a  century  later  Charlevoix  mentioned 
the  fact  of  the  confusion  of  the  idea  of  a  Great  Spirit.9 
Furthermore,  the  myths  fail  to  reveal  one  supreme  god.10  But 
the  Jesuits,  preaching  and  teaching,  interruptedly,  for  almost 
a  century  after  1640,  impressed  a  notion  of  God  upon  the 

5LVII  J.  R.   (1672-1673),  127-129. 

eBeauchamp:  "Early  Eeligion  .  .  .  ,"  Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour.  (1892), 
XIV,  344. 

7/6.,  348. 

sHistoire,  I,  447.  Cf.  LI  J.  R.  (1666-1668),  183;  Donohoe,  198;  Mrs. 
Smith,  51;  Converse,  32  note  1;  Brinton:  Myths  of  the  ~Kew  "World, 
52 ;  Parkman :  Jesuits,  I,  75. 

s  Voyage  to  N.  A.,  II,  107.  Lafitau  agrees  with  Charlevoix,  Mceurs 
des  Sauvages,  I,  118.  La  Hontan,  who  spent  his  ten  years  in  New 
France  a  generation  before  Charlevoix  visited  the  country,  affirms 
that  the  Indians  believed  in  a  Great  Spirit  (II,  434).  One  hesitates  to 
accept  his  affirmation.  His  statement  may  be  true  for  the  India 
with  whom  he  actually  had  contact  and  who  had  been  under  Jesuit 
influence  for  many  years  before  La  Hontan  arrived  in  Canada. 

10  Cf.  Converse,  Mrs.  Smith,  Canfield. 


54  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

pagan  Iroquois  under  the  native  name  Hawenneyu,  commonly 
translated  Great  Spirit.  What  the  Iroquois  could  do  most 
easily  and  what  he  did  do,  was  to  add  this  new  god  to  those 
already  known  to  him.  Of  the  simple  way  in  which  the  addi 
tion  could  be  made,  and  of  what  was  expected  of  the  new  deity, 
an  anecdote  about  some  Iroquois  hunters  gives  illustration. 
They  had  gone  out  accompanied  by  their  wives  who  were 
Christian  converts.  Several  days  passed  fruitlessly  so  that 
the  men  were  constrained  to  appeal  to  the  women.  "  For  some 
days  now  we  have  been  coursing  these  great  forests  without 
finding  anything.  Why  do  you  not  pray  to  him  who  made 
the  animals  to  give  us  some  for  our  food,  since  you  are  ac 
quainted  with  him?  ""  Apparently  the  Iroquois  felt  they  had 
no  claim  upon  a  god  whom  they  refused  to  worship,  yet  in  time 
of  need  he  was  acceptable  if  he  could  and  would  fill  Iroquois 
wants.  It  will  be  noticed  that  God  was  expected  to  act  like 
an  Iroquois  deity.  The  first  public  mention,  by  a  pagan  Iro 
quois,  of  the  name  Great  Spirit  that  has  been  found,  was  that 
made  in  the  opening  address  at  a  conference  held  on  September 
12th,  1774.  The  speaker  said,  "  We  are  very  thankful  to  the 
Great  Spirit  for  permitting  all  our  Chiefs  &  Warriors  to  see 
you  (Col.  Guy  Johnson)  here  this  day,  .  .  ."  Johnson  re 
plied,  "  Brothers,  I  am  heartily  thankful  to  the  Great  Spirit 
for  permitting  me  to  see  you  all  this  day,  .  .  ,"12  But  in  the 
Condolence  performed  subsequently  the  Great  Spirit  seems  not 
to  have  been  mentioned,  and  the  old  custom  of  "  covering  the 
grave,  wiping  away  the  tears,  clearing  the  sky,"  and  so  forth, 
was  adhered  to.13  Upon  a  similar  occasion  eighteen  years 
before,  the  Great  Spirit  appears  not  to  have  been  addressed 
at  all.14  The  account  of  this  meeting,  however,  is  not  so  cir 
cumstantial  as  that  given  of  the  conference  held  by  Johnson. 
Meager  as  it  is  this  is  the  only  bit  of  evidence  found  so  far 
that  gives  a  date  for  the  emergence  of  the  Great  Spirit.  If 
his  name  was  used  familiarly  in  a  public  address  in  1774  it 
must  have  been  used  commonly  for  some  years  before.  This 
new  god  soon  appeared  ancient  and  became  the  most  important 


J.  R.  (1654-1656),  177. 
12  Col.  Hist,  of  N.  r.,  VIII,  498. 

13/6. 

i*/6.,  VII,  133-134. 


AFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  55 

and  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  Iroquois  deities.  In  fact,  as 
early  as  the  seventh  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  de 
spite  long  contact  with  Indians  thereafter,  Heckewelder  did 
not  recognize  the  Christian  origin  of  Hawenneyu  or  of  any 
of  his  attributes.  Almost  a  century  later  such  careful  ob 
servers  and  students  as  J.  V.  H.  Clark  and  L.  H.  Morgan  were 
certain  that  the  Great  Spirit  was  entirely  a  native  god. 

In  Iroquois  eyes  Hawenneyu  was  not  the  God  of  the  Whites. 
He  was  peculiarly  Indian.     He  was  born.    He  created  the 
Indians,  and  he  ruled  and  preserved  them.15     He  constantly 
superintended  and  administered  the  affairs  of  the  world,  that 
is  to  say,  the  affairs  of  the  red  men.     According  to  Corn- 
planter  he  was  a  great  and  loving  spirit  whose  extended  arms 
bore  up  and  encircled  the  universe.     He  created  all  the  ob 
jects,  both  animate  and  inanimate,  upon  the  earth.     He  smiled 
upon  his  people  in  sunshine  and  shower,  and  frowned  upon 
them  in  fierce  storms  and  whirlwinds.     He  peopled  the  air 
with  millions  of  embodied  spirits.     Some  of  them  were  evil 
and,   unless   propitiated,   caused   pain,   sickness,  trouble  and 
death;  but  others  were  good  spirits  and  aided  the  hunter  in 
his  chase,  the  lover  in  his  suit,  and  brought  male  offspring  to 
the  mother's  arms.     Finally,  he  had  prepared  for  the  Iro 
quois  a  "Happy  Hunting-Ground"  where  every  one  should 
go  after  death.     "  There  beautiful  birds  would  make  resonant 
the  hills  and  valleys  with  their  enchanting  song.     The  Great 
Spirit  had  covered  that  vast  and  magnificent  country  with 
plains,  and  forests,  and  limpid  streams,  in  which  and  over 
which  would  sport  the  red  deer,  bears,  buffaloes,  wild  horses 
and  all  animals  and  fishes  useful  for  clothing  and  food.  .  .  ."* 
Such  a  spirit  naturally  would  figure  largely  in  ceremonial. 
The  important  role  of  the  Great  Spirit  in  Iroquois  religion  will 
be  shown  in  the  discussion  below  of  Handsome  Lake  and  the 
nineteenth  century  religious  festivals. 

The  appearance  and  spread  of  these  beliefs  connected  with 
the  Great  Spirit  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen 
turies  did  much  to  minimize  the  worship  of  the  deity  most 

15  Yet  the  older  myths  of  the  origins  of  the  Iroquois  tribes  and 
clans  persist.     Cf.   Cusick,   11-14;   Converse,   110-112;   Canfield,  85-87. 
Barbeau:  Huron  and  Wyandot  Mythology,  has  a  number  of  such  myth 

16  Canfield,  169-170. 


56  IROQUOIS  LELIGION. 

/Xx^ 

antagonistic  to  the  Christian  teachings,  namely  Agreskoue.  'By 
the  seventh  decade  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Jesuits  were 
saying,  "  Many  persons  no  longer  invoke  Agriskoue  and  this 
has  often  been  professed  in  open  assembly."17  They  asserted 
at  the  same  time  that  the  faith  in  dreams  also  was  lessening. 
Yet  as  late  as  1774  Colonel  Johnson  found  it  necessary  to  give 
a  large  kettle  to  be  used  at  a  dance,  because  of  a  dream.  But 
it  is  true,  nevertheless,  that  as  the  belief  in  the  Great  Spirit 
became  more  current  that  in  Tarenyawagon  and  his  messenger 
Aikon  faded.18  The  other  deities  and  spirits,  great  and  small, 
appear  to  have  been  affected  only  in  that  they  came  somehow 
under  the  supervision  of  Hawenneyu.  Their  persistence  and 
the  persistence  of  the  duties  connected  with  them  will  be  noted 
below  in  the  accounts  of  the  religious  festivals  of  the  past 
century.19 

Since  the  seventeenth  century  a  native  innovation  which  has 
lasted  almost  to  the  present  generation  made  its  appearance 
from  obscure  beginnings.  That  animals  were  sacrificed  some 
times  has  been  seen.  Dogs  were  so  used  frequently.  For  some 
unknown  reason,  possibly  through  Iroquois  imitation  of 
western  neighbors,  it  became  customary  to  sacrifice  a  white  dog 
during  the  Feast  of  Dreams.  As  the  belief  is  the  Great  Spirit 
strengthened  and  that  in  Tarenyawagon  weakened  the  dream 
came  to  play  a  less  responsible  part  and  the  ceremony  came 
to  center  about  the  worship  of  the  Great  Spirit.  The  white 
dog,  whose  color  represented  peace  and  good-will  even  as  white 
wampum  symbolized  them,  was  strangled  during  the  ceremony 
and  its  soul  was  sent  as  a  messenger  to  the  Great  Spirit.  To 
him  it  presented  the  condition  and  wants  of  the  Iroquois.  The 

17LVII  J.  R.  (1672-1673),  123;  cf.  LIII  J.  R.  (1669-1670),  239. 
LVIII  J.  R.  (1673-1674),  205. 

isLVIII  J.  R.  (1673-1674),  205;  LIII  J.  R.  (1669-1670),  ch.  VII.  In 
the  latter,  beginning  on  page  261,  is  a  fine  statement  of  how  the  mis 
sionaries  worked  and  of  their  successes  and  failures.  In  the  Col.  Hist, 
of  A7.  Y.,  VIII,  522,  it  is  stated  that  in  December,  1774  "...  Col : 
Johnson  delivered  a  large  kettle  ...  to  be  used  at  a  dance  in  con 
sequence  of  a  dream  .  .  ."  The  effect  of  the  Jesuit  labors  to  do  away 
with  beliefs  in  dreams  seems  to  have  been  that  some  of  the  barbarous 
practices  were  discontinued. 

i»  See  pp.  65-71.  For  further  comment  upon  the  Great  Spirit : — 
Morgan,  I,  144,  146-147,  154;  Heckewelder,  100-102;  Loskiel,  Pt.  I, 
ch.  Ill ;  Converse,  32  note  1,  132 ;  Boyle,  u.  s.,  264-272. 


AFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  57 

details  of  this  ceremony  are  told  only  by  observers  in  the 
nineteenth  century.20 

A  missionary  among  the  Hurons  wrote  in  1627  that  " '  Our 
Indians  believe  that  there  is  a  certain  invisible  spirit  which 
governs  all,  one  good  and  one  bad,  yet  without  power  to  under 
stand  or  specify  which  is  the  fortunate,  which  the  unfortunate 
genius.'  "21  Their  name  for  a  devil  was  the  same  as  that  for  a 
good  spirit.  The  dualism  which  ranges  "  On  one  hand  the 
good  spirit  with  his  legion  of  angels,  on  the  other  the  evil  one 
with  his  swarms  of  fiends,  representing  the  world  as  the  scene 
of  their  unending  conflict,  man  as  the  unlucky  football  who 
gets  all  the  blows,  ...  is  unknown  to  savage  nations."22  But, 
possessing  the  notion  of  spirits  that  were  sometimes  good  and 
sometimes  evil,  it  was  possible  for  the  Iroquois  to  adapt  and 
to  use  the  Christian  idea  of  good  as  over  against  evil.  In  the 
creation  myth,  so  powerfully  affected  by  Christian  theology, 
the  cleavage  was  introduced.  In  that  myth  the  spirits  Sapling 
and  Flint  were  respectively  the  embodiment  of  good  and  of 
evil.  Sapling,  as  the  good  spirit,  created  all  things  good  and 
made  man  and  woman  even  as  Adam  and  Eve  had  been 
made.  Flint,  as  the  evil  spirit,  created  all  things  evil  and 
fought  the  spirit  of  good.  The  myth  was  very  definite  upon 
the  matter.23  But  other  myths  retained  the  notion  that  a 
spirit  may  at  one  time  do  good  and  at  another,  evil.24  The 
False-Faces  are  a  familiar  illustration. 

The  heaven  described  by  the  missionary  was  adopted,  but  be 
came  modified  considerably  in  the  process.  It  was  an  Indian 
heaven  only,  no  white  persons  being  found  there.  George 
Washington  was  the  only  white  man  permitted  in  the  region; 
even  he,  however,  could  not  dwell  in  heaven,  but  had  his  abode 
just  outside,  on  the  road  to  it.  To  reach  heaven  the  soul  had 

20  Beauchamp,  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  I,  198  sq.  and  note  2;  i&.,  VIII,  209- 
212 ;  Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour.,  XIV,  347-348. 

Hale,  Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour.,  VII,  7-14,  235-239.  Also  Morgan,  II,  262- 
265.  Brief  description  of  ceremony  is  given  in  text,  pp.  69-70;  see 
notes  41-46  thereto. 

21  Beauchamp  :  Early  Religion,  345. 

22Brinton,  u.  s.,  59;  cf.  La  Hontan,  II,  448  and  note;  Loskiel,  Pt. 
I,  34. 

23  See  Ch.  II,  note  7,  p.  27. 

24  See  Converse,  Canfield  and  Mrs.  Smith. 


58  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

to  pass  along  the  Path  of  Souls,  called  by  us  the  Milky  Way. 
This  belief,  however,  little  affected  the  older  beliefs  and  prac 
tices  regarding  the  abode  of  souls  in  the  West  or  in  the  ground 
or  in  "that  place"  from  which  they  come  to  enter  the  bodies 
of  infants  at  birth.25 

The  Iroquois  did  not  take  either  kindly  or  willingly  to  the 
idea  of  eternal  punishment.  That  idea  was  too  foreign  to  his 
experience.26  It  seems  that  not  until  the  religious  revival 
under  Handsome  Lake  in  the  early  nineteenth  century  was  the 
notion  of  hell  as  the  place  of  punishment  for  sinners  definitely 
accepted. 

At  festivals  it  became  customary,  though  possibly  not  before 
the  nineteenth  century,  to  make  public  confession  of  sins.  But 
the  conception  neither  of  confession  nor  of  sin,  judging  from 
the  practice,  was  that  of  the  old  Jesuit  teachers.  Confession 
meant  simply  the  acknowledgment  of  contrition.  The  Indian 
disliked  punishment  intensely.  The  sinner,  after  confession, 
expected  no  punishment  here  or  hereafter.  If  a  man,  said 
they,  be  truly  sorry,  says  so  and  promises  faithfully  to  do 
wrong  no  more,  "  Then  what  more  can  be  expected  of  him  ?  " 

Oral  prayer  became  a  part  of  the  regular,  public,  religious 
ceremonies,  the  Great  Spirit  being  thanked  for  the  favors  he 
had  shown  to  his  people  and  asked  for  continued  aid  since  his 
people  so  faithfully  carried  out  his  behests.27  Prayers  seem 
to  have  been  uttered  not  so  much  in  the  spirit  of  "  true  Chris 
tian  humility  "  as  in  the  spirit,  "  We  have  done  our  duty  and 
respectfully  remind  you  to  do  yours."  It  was  customary  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  regular  morning  meal  for  the  man  to  say, 
"  Thanks  are  given  "  and  for  the  woman  to  reply,  "  It  is  well." 
This  practice  probably  was  not  aboriginal.28 

Baptism  never  was  adopted.  It  was  black  magic,  danger 
ous  and  filled  with  malignant  power.29 

25LVII  J.  R.  (1672-1673),  117-119;  Canfield,  169-171;  Converse, 
51-52,  56-57;  Morgan,  I,  245-246. 

26  Boyle,  271. 

2T  Morgan,  I,  bk.  ii,  chs.  I,  II,  passim ;  cf .  Boyle. 

28  Parker:  Maize,  61;  Converse,  134  note  1;  LIII  J.  R.  (1669-1670), 
265-267. 

29Donohoe,  122;  cf.  XLII  J.  R.  (1655-1656),  135. 


AFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  59 

HANDSOME  LAKE  AND  THE  CRYSTALLIZATION  OF  MANY  CHRIS 
TIAN  INFLUENCES. 

A  great  man  and  the  birth  of  a  new  nation  effected  changes 
in  the  Iroquois  religion  in  the  nineteenth  century  even  as  the 
Christian  religion  had  been  effecting  them  during  the  two 
centuries  preceding.  Under  these  three  influences  religious 
practices  in  the  nineteenth  century  became  more  definite,  regu 
larly  recurring  and  fixed,  and  at  the  same  time  more  thor 
oughly  related  to  the  Great  Spirit.  Between  about  1775  and 
1815  the  Iroquois,  long  a  prized  ally  both  of  the  English  and 
of  the  French,  found  a  new  nation  building  and  growing,  and 
surrounding  their  ancient  territories  and  impressing  its  will 
upon  them.  Henceforth  war  could  not  be  waged,  and  peace 
was  in  the  land.  Besides,  the  presence  of  so  many  people  was 
making  hunting  a  poor  occupation.  So  the  warrior  lost  his 
work.  Men  neither  went  forth  regularly  to  war  nor  made  a 
living  by  hunting.  Men  had  to  farm.  The  old  agricultural 
basis  became  the  very  economic  center  of  life,  and  what  had 
been  man's  work  disappeared  or  remained  simply  as  a  pastime 
while  woman's  work  became  his.  Agreskoue  now  had  no 
reason  for  continued  existence.  He  disappeared.  But  the 
deities  of  agriculture  waxed  and  grew.  With  peace,  with  a 
settled  life  and  with  a  definite  routine  of  work  centering  about 
the  orderly,  repetitive  tasks  of  the  farmer,  there  came  a  defi- 
niteness  in  the  recurrence  and  conduct  of  religious  ceremonies. 
Just  as  this  change  was  taking  place  the  effect  of  the  Christian 
religious  forces  at  work  during  the  preceding  two  centuries 
came  to  a  head,  in  so  far  as  that  was  possible,  in  one  man  who 
crystallized  the  beliefs  concerning  the  Great  Spirit  and  gath 
ered  the  religious  ceremonies  about  him. 

Handsome  Lake,  half  brother  to  Cornplanter,  was  a  Seneca 
sachem  who,  having  lived  the  greater  part  of  three  score  years 
a  life  largely  dissolute,  reformed  upon  recovering  from  a 
dangerous  illness  and  for  about  two  decades  until  his  death 
in  1815  preached  moral  reformation  upon  a  religious  sanction. 
While  ill,  so  runs  his  statement,  he  had  a  vision  in  which  he 
was  visited  by  four  angels,  emissaries  of  the  Great  Spirit. 
For,  according  to  the  Jesuit  teaching  one  communicated  with 
God  only  through  an  intermediary.  These  angels  had  Hand 
some  Lake  accompany  them  and  showed  him  heaven  and  hell. 


60  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

They  told  him,  at  the  behest  of  Hawenneyu,  to  reform  his 
people.30 

Intemperance  beyond  all  other  vices  had  played  obvious  and 
dreadful  havoc  among  the  Iroquois.31  Some  feared  its  inroads 
would  exterminate  them  altogether.  Whatever  may  be  said 
of  Lake's  motives  and  methods,  he  did  endeavor  late  in  life  to 
work  a  reform  and  did  carry  through  a  successful  campaign 
against  drink.  Though  this  was  of  primary  importance  in 
his  eyes  it  was  not  his  sole  mission.  Mere  talk  about  the 
necessity  of  being  good  would  carry  little  weight,  for  men  had 
long  talked  thus.  So  Lake  preached  good  conduct  on  the 
pain  of  eternal,  fearful  punishment.  In  his  teachings  he 
perpetuated  both  the  old  forms  and  beliefs  and  the  new  ones 
that  had  crept  in.  He  powerfully  emphasized  the  religious 
sanction  back  of  conduct  on  earth  by  describing  the  rewards 
that  Hawenneyu  would  give  the  good  and  by  emphasizing  the 
ills  that  awaited  the  wicked  in  the  form  of  dreadful  punish 
ment  from  Hawenneyu.  His  chief  and  striking  influence  was 
upon  morals,  and  his  instrument  for  improving  the  morals  was 
the  religious  belief  in  the  Great  Spirit.  His  preaching  bore 
fruit  immediately. 

"  His  (Handsome  Lake's)  introduction  to  the  Onondaga  nation  was 
like  this.  At  the  time  the  whites  came  among  this  people  they  were 
greatly  addicted  to  the  use  of  ardent  spirits,  and  frequently  indulged 
in  it  to  the  most  beastly  excess.  In  the  year  1790  or  '91,  while  Mr. 
Webster  occupied  his  trading  house  at  the  mouth  of  Onondaga  Creek, 
eighteen  of  the  principal  chiefs  and  warriors  of  the  Onondagas  called 
on  him,  stating  that  they  had  just  set  out  to  attend  a  great  council 
of  the  six  nations,  to  be  held  at  Buffalo.  As  was  customary,  Mr. 
Webster  produced  his  bottle,  and  it  was  plied  with  a  right  good  will 
to  the  lips  of  all.  Webster  was  always  a  special  favorite  with  the 
Indians,  and  on  this  occasion  parted  with  his  guests  with  unusual 
demonstrations  of  mutual  attachment.  In  due  time,  these  delegates 
returned;  and  as  usual  the  bottle  of  strong  drink  was  placed  before 
them.  To  the  utter  astonishment  of  Mr.  Webster,  every  man  of  them 
refused  to  touch  it.  ...  The  chiefs  explained,  that  they  had  met  at 
Buffalo,  a  PROPHET  of  the  Seneca  nation,  who  had  assured  them,  and 
in  this  assurance  they  had  the  most  implicit  confidence,  that  without 

so  Morgan,  I,  217-220;  Parker:  Code  of  Handsome  Lake,  5,  9-13, 
19,  21-26. 

aiLVIII  J.  R.  (1673-1674),  205;  Doc.  Hist,  of  N.  T.,  II,  592,  627- 
623,  640,  656,  976,  1107,  1109  and  vol.  IX,  1043-1044;  Parker:  Code,  9, 
10,  cf.  17,  18,  20-21. 


AFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  61 

a  total  abstinence,  from  the  use  of  ardent  spirits,  they  and  their  race 
would  shortly  become  extinct ;  that  they  had  entered  upon  a  resolu 
tion,  never  again  to  taste  the  baneful  article,  and  that  they  hoped  to 
be  able  to  prevail  on  their  nation  to  adopt  the  same  salutary 
resolution."32 

In  1888  a  Seneca,  speaking  of  Handsome  Lake's  work,  de 
scribed  it  thus : 

"  '  The  general  belief  is,  one  great  spirit  controls  everything ;  God, 
he  is  called  in  English,  he  is  a  supreme  power  on  earth,  everything; 
and  then  they  believe  in  temperance ;  that  is  the  most  part  of  their 
religion,  is  temperance;  and  they  believe  in  thanking,  mostly,  to  the 
Great  Spirit,  that  is  the  most  important  thing;  most  everything  they 
see  they  thank  him ;  it  is  their  doctrine,  to  be  kind  to  one  another,  to 
be  good,  honest  people;  and  they  believe  a  man  is  to  have  only  one 
woman  to  live  with ;  and  they  are  strict ;  their  doctrine  is  against 
marry  more  than  one  woman ;  it  commenced  about  eighty-eight  years 
ago  that  way;  before  that  we  was  wild;  they  would  murder  one 
another,  and  drinking 'just  about  that  time;  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
whisky  brought  for  the  Indians;  and  they  had  terrible  times;  and 
then  they  got  up  this  Indian  doctrine ;  and  Handsome  Lake  he  preached 
to  the  Indians ;  he  was  taken  sick,  they  claimed,  and  some  good  things 
he  showed  to  the  people,  and  everybody  adopted  right  away ;  after  that 
doctrine  everybody  was  good;  everybody  was  good;  and  all  shaking 
hands  and  all  feeling  good;  and  that  is  the  starting  of  this  Indian 
religion.  .  .  .'"ss 

The  religious  ceremonies  of  the  nineteenth  century  described 
by  Clark,  Morgan,  Parker  and  others  owe  much  for  their 
emphasis  upon  morals  and  upon  the  Great  Spirit  as  the  sanc 
tion  of  morality  to  the  teachings  of  Handsome  Lake  and  his 
immediate  and  sole  successor,  Jimmy  Johnson.  What  Hand 
some  Lake  preached  is  related  by  Jimmy  Johnson  in  a  sermon 
occupying  three  mornings.34  Johnson  opened  his  address  with 
a  brief  statement  of  the  visit  of  the  four  angels  to  Handsome 

32  Clark :  Onondaga,  I,  105-106  ;  cf .  Parker,  u.  s.,  6. 

as  Morgan,  II  (note  66),  235-236,  quoted  from  Indian  Problem,  II, 
1104. 

34  What  follows  is  a  summary  of  the  translation  of  Johnson's  ad 
dress  at  a  general  Condoling  Council  held  at  Tonawanda,  Oct.  4,  5,  6, 
1848.  Ely  S.  Parker  who  made  the  translation  was  thoroughly  fami 
liar  with  the  discourse.  It  is  given  in  full  in  Morgan,  I,  224-248.  Cf. 
E.  Johnson:  Legends,  Traditions  and  Laws,  185-208.  Johnson  was  a 
Tuscarora  chief.  His  account  is  similar  to  that  of  Morgan.  A  fine 
discussion  is  given  in  Parker:  Code,  in  which  the  code  itself  is  trans 
lated,  pages  20-80. 


62  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

Lake.  Following  that  and  as  the  first  of  a  number  of  exhorta 
tions  he  pointed  out  the  evils  of  intemperance  and  solemnly 
warned  his  listeners  against  the  habit.  The  remainder  of  the 
first  morning's  discourse  dealt  mainly  with  family  relations. 
Marriages,  said  he,  as  far  as  possible  should  be  kept  faith 
fully.  Hypocrisy  and  deceit  should  be  shunned.  It  is  a  duty 
to  care  for  orphan  children  and  properly  to  rear  them.  All 
children  should  be  taught  morality  and  reverence  for  the 
Creator.  As  for  the  marriage  relation,  adherence  must  be 
given  to  the  ancient  Iroquois  dictum  that  it  is  right  and  meet 
for  a  mother  to  select  a  suitable  match  for  her  child.  Once 
married,  the  endeavor  should  be  made  not  to  give  grounds  for 
divorce.  Here  Johnson  repeated  the  command  that  children 
be  taught  the  old  moral  virtues  of  obedience  to  and  respect 
for  their  elders,  and  also  that  they  be  taught  the  duty  of 
obedience  to  and  reverence  for  the  Great  Spirit.  He  pointed 
out  that  quarreling  between  man  and  wife  was  wrong  and  that 
they  should  support  each  other,  since  quarreling  and  antagon 
ism  between  parents  were  of  evil  influence  upon  their  children. 
After  telling  his  listeners  that  the  Great  Spirit  thought  it  a 
great  wrong  to  sell  land,  to  traffic  in  earth  as  though  it  were 
paltry  merchandise,  and  that  consequently  the  Great  Spirit 
surely  would  punish  the  transgressor,  Johnson  concluded  his 
first  day's  speech  at  noon  with  this  remark :  "  Chiefs,  keepers 
of  the  faith,  warriors,  women  and  children: — You  all  know 
that  our  religion  teaches,  that  the  early  day  is  dedicated  to  the 
Great  Spirit,  and  that  the  late  day  is  granted  to  the  spirits  of 
the  dead.  It  is  now  meridian  and  I  must  close." 

Taking  up  his  discourse  again  the  following  morning  John 
son  declared  that  adultery,  always  a  great  wrong  in  Iroquois 
eyes,  was  a  sin  in  the  eyes  of  the  Great  Spirit.  Regarding 
punishments  the  Creator  had  declared  that  the  chastisement  of 
children  by  means  of  the  rod  was  wrong  and  that  the  old 
method,  that  of  sprinkling  water  upon  the  child  to  be  corrected 
or  even  of  ducking  him,  was  sufficient.  The  Great  Spirit  sanc 
tioned  all  the  old  festivals  and  games,  and  therefore  they  were 
to  be  continued.  Then  Johnson  portrayed  what  were  to  be  the 
future  punishments  meted  out  by  the  Great  Spirit  to  all 
drunkards  and  inhospitable  people,  and  what  were  to  be  the 
rewards  granted  to  the  hospitable.  He  verbally  castigated 


AFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  63 

those  who  evinced  pride  because  of  their  possessions.  "All 
men  were  made  equal  by  the  Great  Spirit;  but  he  has  given 
them  a  variety  of  gifts.  To  some  a  pretty  face,  to  others  an 
ugly  one ;  to  some  a  comely  form,  to  others  a  deformed  figure. 
Some  are  fortunate  in  collecting  around  them  worldly  goods. 
But  you  are  all  entitled  to  the  same  privileges,  and  therefore 
must  put  pride  from  among  you.  You  are  not  your  own 
makers,  nor  the  builders  of  your  own  fortunes.  All  things  are 
the  gift  of  the  Great  Spirit,  and  to  him  must  be  returned 
thanks  for  their  bestowal.  He  alone  must  be  acknowledged 
as  the  giver.  It  has  pleased  him  to  make  differences  among 
men;  but  it  is  wrong  for  one  man  to  exalt  himself  above 
another.  Love  each  other,  for  you  are  all  brothers  and  sisters 
of  the  same  great  family."  The  love  of  music  and  the  passion 
for  gambling  had  led  the  Iroquois  to  frequent  gambling  dens 
and  dance  halls,  to  the  detriment  of  his  physical  and  moral 
health.  Johnson  told  how  in  the  message  to  Handsome  Lake 
the  Great  Spirit  had  urged  the  maintenance  of  the  old  religion 
and  had  pronounced,  through  his  four  messengers,  the  fiddle 
and  cards  to  be  temptations  set  in  the  path  of  the  Iroquois  by 
the  Evil-minded.  Consequently  indulgence  in  them  was  a 
great  sin.  In  the  name  of  the  Creator  the  Keepers  of  the  Faith 
were  exhorted  faithfully  to  continue  the  moral  instruction  of 
their  people.  The  assembled  persons  were  commanded  to 
speak  no  evil  of  one  another  and  to  cultivate  friendship  with 
those  who  surrounded  them,  an  act  pleasing  to  the  Great  Spirit. 
Thus  ended  the  discourse  at  noon  of  the  second  day. 

On  the  morning  of  the  third  day,  having  called  the  attention 
of  his  hearers  to  certain  omissions,  Johnson  once  more  stated 
the  need  of  perpetuating  the  old  religious  ceremonies  at  the 
behest  of  the  Great  Spirit.  Then,  in  quasi-Dantean  fashion, 
hell  and  heaven  were  depicted.  Yet  the  Indian  version,  so 
palpably  modeled  on  the  theology  of  white  missionaries,  was 
nevertheless  Indian  in  its  punishments  and  in  its  sarcasm. 
Johnson  solemnly  pointed  out  that  witches,  murderers  and 
those  guilty  of  infanticide  never  reach  heaven.  The  people 
were  reminded  also  that  stealing  was  displeasing  to  the  Great 
Spirit.  The  Iroquois  mourning  customs,  as  can  be  gathered 
easily  from  the  descriptions  of  them  already  given,  often  led 
to  the  impoverishment  of  those  concerned  and  sometimes,  be- 


64  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

cause  of  their  rigors,  led  to  death.  Handsome  Lake,  so  keen 
in  his  recognition  of  influences  favorable  and  unfavorable  to 
his  people,  sought  to  reform  these  customs.  His  success  is 
seen  in  Johnson's  declaration  that  the  custom  of  mourning  for 
a  year  was  wrong  and  that  it  is  commanded  that  the  bereaved 
mourn  ten  days  for  the  dead  and  not  longer.  "The  four 
Messengers  further  said  to  Handsome  Lake,  they  were  fearful 
that,  unless  the  people  repented  and  obeyed  his  commands,  the 
patience  and  forbearance  of  their  Creator  would  be  exhausted ; 
that  he  would  grow  angry  with  them,  and  cause  their  increase 
to  cease."  With  a  statement  concerning  the  final  day  of 
reckoning  in  which  the  good  and  the  faithful  shall  go  home  to 
their  Creator  while  the  wicked  shall  perish,  and  with  thanks 
to  and  a  blessing  on  his  listeners,  Johnson  concluded  a  re 
markable  sermon. 

This  brief  synopsis  of  Johnson's  discourse  contains  three 
matters  of  importance,  whether  looked  at  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  history  that  lay  back  of  the  sermon  or  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  ceremonial  and  duties  that  partially 
flowed  from  it.  In  the  first  place  the  meat  of  the  discourse  is 
really  Indian.  The  purport  of  the  sermon  is  to  tell  people 
how  to  act;  and  the  things  to  be  done  or  not  to  be  done  are 
mainly  native.  His  exhortations  regarding  marriage,  regard 
ing  the  rearing  of  children,  regarding  the  duties  of  parents  to 
each  other  and  to  their  young,  regarding  hospitality,  friend 
ship,  the  evils  of  witchcraft,  boasting,  defaming  persons,  pride, 
thieving,  inchastity,  prescribe  duties  known  to  the  Iroquois 
before  the  strangers  came  from  over  the  sea.  But  there  are  a 
few  duties  that  were  learned  from  or  imposed  by  the  Whites. 
The  white  man  gave  the  Iroquois  drink  and  cards.  The  virtue 
of  temperance  and  the  viciousness  of  gambling  and  dancing 
were  apparent  to  all  observant  persons  before  Lake  died.  In 
the  second  place  the  reasons  given  for  conducting  one's  self 
properly  are  really  Christian.  The  references  to  the  Creator 
or  Great  Spirit,  to  hell  and  heaven,  to  future  punishment  and 
a  judgment  day,  to  confession  and  sin  and  to  the  duty  of 
thanking  the  gods  are  examples  of  how  the  contact  with  the 
Whites  gave  a  new  sanction  to  the  old  virtues.  Over  and 
above  all  such  considerations  the  sermon  contains  in  the  third 
place  a  reiteration  of  the  duty  of  preserving  the  old  festivals, 


AFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  65 

dances  and  games  that  is  made  effective  because  of  divine 
behest.  The  Great  Spirit  wants  these  things  done  as  of  old. 
The  regularity  and  care  with  which  the  nineteenth  century 
ceremonies  were  conducted  have  been  due  in  large  part  to  the 
commands  of  Handsome  Lake  and  Johnson.  These  men 
molded  the  religion  of  their  people  whilst  their  ideas  in  turn 
were  fashioned  partly  by  beliefs  and  customs  that  formerly 
were  held  only  by  the  white  people.  The  sermon,  then,  com 
ing  at  a  time  when  Iroquois  ways  of  living  were  changing  over 
from  those  of  a  hunting,  fishing,  agricultural  and  fighting 
people  to  those  of  a  peaceable  and  farming  people,  presents  a 
curious  mixture  of  the  old  and  the  new.  But  it  presents  more 
than  that.  It  clearly  urges  what  we  call  a  high  standard  of 
morality  and  urges  it  upon  a  religious  foundation  and  sanc 
tion.  The  words  of  the  sermon  bespeak  genuine  spirituality 
in  the  orator. 

RELIGIOUS  FESTIVALS  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

In  the  nineteenth  century  the  systematic  and  steadied 
economic  life,  mainly  agricultural,  that  engrossed  the  atten 
tion  of  more  of  the  social  group  than  ever  before,  reflected  its 
interest  and  value  for  the  community  in  the  more  elaborate, 
regular,  religious  ceremonies.  Upon  at  least  six  stated  occa 
sions  during  the  year  feastivals  were  held,  each  lasting  from 
one  to  ten  days.  The  regular  recurrence  of  a  complicated 
ceremony  necessitated  the  formation  in  the  tribe  of  a  group 
with  managerial  and  supervisory  powers.  These  persons  were 
the  Keepers  of  the  Faith.  It  has  been  seen  that  in  olden  days, 
for  example  in  invoking  Agreskoue,  some  important  man, 
usually  one  of  the  elders,  took  charge  of  the  conduct  of  affairs. 
The  Keepers  of  the  Faith  seem  to  have  been  functionally,  if 
not  also  historically,  descendants  of  these  men.  Each  tribe, 
Mr.  Morgan  reports,  had  some  individuals,  men  and  women, 
who  were  appointed  by  the  men  and  women  of  the  clans  of  the 
tribe  to  take  charge  of  the  religious  festivals.  These  Keepers 
of  the  Faith  had  no  special  dress  or  other  distinguishing  mark. 
Except  at  festivals  they  differed  in  no  way  from  their  com 
rades.  In  fact  they  held  office  only  so  long  as  they  fulfilled 
their  duties,  resignation  being  permitted  them  at  any  time, 
subject  to  public  disapproval  if  the  resignation  were  thought 


66  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

to  evidence  mere  shirking.  It  was  they  who  made  all  the 
arrangements  with  regard  to  the  holidays,  arrangements  of 
time,  of  place,  of  order  of  ceremonial,  of  addresses  and  so 
forth.  The  women  Keepers  had  especial  supervision  over  the 
provision  and  conduct  of  the  feast  or  feasts  that  capped  all 
such  gatherings.  In  addition  to  their  duties  as  administrators 
of  the  public  festivities,  and  probably  because  of  the  preach 
ing  and  teaching  of  Handsome  Lake,  the  Keepers  had  two 
other  duties  which  gave  them  something  of  the  position  con 
noted  by  the  name  of  priest  or  minister.  They  were  also  the 
official  censors,  reporting  to  the  council  at  the  religious  meet 
ing  the  misdeeds  of  members  of  the  community.  They  them 
selves  made  the  addresses,  both  religious  and  moral.  Their 
work  as  moral  advisers  will  be  touched  upon  in  the  next 
chapter.35 

One  of  the  primary  modes  of  formal  worship  was  the  re 
ligious  dance,  for  the  Indian  danced  his  worship.  It  was  not 
play  to  him.  The  interpreter,  Conrad  Weiser,  says  that  he  saw 
some  Iroquois  dance  at  Onondaga,  in  1745,  for  three  hours 
or  more  until  the  perspiration  rolled  off  them.  He  wondered 
that  human  exertion  could  be  so  strenuous  for  so  long  a  time 
and  marveled  at  the  physical  endurance  displayed.36  The 
dance  was  sacred.  It  was  "  praying  with  the  feet."  At  all 
festivals  they  danced  to  some  deity.  It  also  was  a  record,  for 
the  love  of  dancing  and  the  desire  for  it  prevented  the  loss  of 
the  deity  danced  to. 

The  first  of  the  great  festivals  was  the  Maple  Dance,  held 
when  the  sap  began  to  flow  and  having  for  its  religious  object 
the  thanking  of  the  Maple  itself  for  its  "  sweet  waters  "  and 
the  thanking  of  the  Great  Spirit  for  the  gift  of  the  tree  and 
for  his  kindness  to  the  assembled  folk.37  This  festival  and 
all  others  were  preceded  by  a  confession  of  sins  and  were 
marked  by  dances  and  feasts.  Much  time  during  the  religious 
cermony  was  devoted  to  social  enjoyment,  the  activities  being 
more  or  less  colored  by  the  notion  that  they  were  sacred — the 
dance  was  sacred  or  the  game  was  sacred. 

as  Morgan,  I,  177-179.     See  below,  p.  85. 

se  Penna.  Magazine  of  Hist.,  Ill,  60.  Cf.  Morgan,  passim;  index  p. 
318  of  vol.  II  is  guide  to  dances.  Clark,  I,  62  sq. 

87  Parker:  Code,  gives  translation  of  a  Seneca  sacred  ceremony,  94- 
100,  and  an  outline  of  cornplanting  and  maple  thanksgivings,  101-104. 


AFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  67 

Later  in  the  spring,  when  the  seedlings  were  about  to  be 
planted,  a  festival  was  held  which  was  distinguishable  from 
that  of  the  Maple  Dance  only  in  that  the  Great  Spirit  was 
thanked  for  the  return  of  the  season  and  was  asked  to  bless 
the  seed. 

Between  this  festival  and  the  next  regular  one,  if  a  drought 
threatened  the  young  plants,  a  special  one  was  held — an  old 
one — to  invoke  Heno.  The  address  of  the  Keeper  shows  how 
poorly  fused  Iroquois  beliefs  and  Christian  accretions  often 
were.  After  tobacco  had  been  burned,  its  incense  always  being 
used  as  a  means  of  communicating  with  the  greater  deities,  the 
following  was  solemnly  recited:  "He-no,  our  Grandfather, 
listen  now  to  the  words  of  thy  grandchildren.  We  feel 
grieved.  Our  minds  are  sorely  troubled.  We  fear  Our  Sup 
porters  (corn,  bean,  squash)  will  fail,  and  bring  famine  upon 
us.  We  ask  our  Grandfather  that  he  may  come,  and  give  us 
rain,  that  the  earth  may  not  dry  up,  and  refuse  to  produce  for 
our  support.  Thy  grandchildren  all  send  their  salutations  to 
their  grandfather,  He-no."  To  this  address  was  added  a 
prayer  to  the  Great  Spirit  in  which  he  was  asked  to  "  Direct 
that  He-no  may  come,  and  give  us  rain,  that  Our  Supporters 
may  not  fail  us,  and  bring  famine  to  our  home."38 

WTien  the  berries  were  ripe  a  festival  similar  to  the  two 
regular  festivals  mentioned,  was  held.  The  chief  feature  was 
the  feast. 

The  most  important  religious  ceremonies  were  the  last  three, 
connected  with  the  ripening  of  the  corn,  the  harvesting  of  the 
crops  and  the  ushering  in  of  the  new  year  in  February.  Since  the 
primary  vegetable  food  was  corn,  with  its  sisters  the  bean  and 
the  squash,  the  ripening  of  these  marked  the  time  of  abundance. 
The  occasion  was  one  for  feasting  and  rejoicing.  The  Green 
Corn  Festival  lasted  four  days,  each  having  its  distinguishing 
activities  and  every  one  concluding  with  a  feast.  The  first  day 

as  Morgan,  I,  189.  The  account  of  festivals,  in  the  text,  is  based 
largely  upon  Morgan,  I,  bk.  ii,  ch.  II.  Morgan  had  the  confidence  of 
the  Iroquois  and  was  a  Seneca  by  adoption ;  his  accounts  of  the  festi 
vals  as  actually  conducted  are  reliable  for  they  are  based  either  upon 
personal  observations  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  or  upon 
descriptions  by  Ely  Parker,  himself  a  full-blooded  Seneca,  well  edu 
cated,  intelligent  and  a  Brigadier-General  and  former  private  secre 
tary  to  General  Grant. 


68  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

was  marked  by  speeches,  by  the  performance,  in  addition  to 
several  other  dances,  of  the  special  dance  to  the  Great  Spirit, 
the  Feather  Dance,  and  by  an  address  to  the  Great  Spirit.  On 
the  second  day  addresses  were  made  again  and  the  Thanks 
giving  Dance  was  given.  The  latter  was  similar  to  the 
Feather  Dance  and  like  it  was  performed  by  a  select  band. 
This  day  also  was  marked  by  a  series  of  very  short  speeches 
not  to  Hawenneyu  alone  but  to  various  phenomena,  mainly 
natural.  The  third  day  was  distinguished  by  a  thanksgiving 
concert  in  which  were  sung  thanks  to  and  praises  of  all  natural 
objects.  On  the  fourth  day  the  old  peach-stone  game  was 
played.  The  chief  religious  element  in  the  festival  was  the 
Thanksgiving  Dance  of  the  second  day  and  the  accompanying 
addresses.  A  series  of  two  minute  dances  was  performed  to  the 
music  of  thanksgiving  songs  and  shell  rattles,  and  after  each 
dance  one  of  the  following  sentences  was  recited  until  this  list 
was  run  through: 

"  We  return  thanks  to  our  mother,  the  earth,  which  sustains  us. 

"  We  return  thanks  to  the  rivers  and  streams,  which  supply  us  with 
water. 

"  We  return  thanks  to  all  the  herbs,  which  furnish  medicines  for  the 
cure  of  our  diseases. 

"  We  return  thanks  to  the  corn,  and  to  her  sisters,  the  beans  and 
squashes,  which  give  us  life. 

"  We  return  thanks  to  the  bushes  and  trees,  which  provide  us  with 
fruit. 

"  We  return  thanks  to  the  wind,  which,  moving  the  air,  has  banished 
diseases. 

"  We  return  thanks  to  the  moon  and  stars,  which  have  given  us 
their  light  when  the  sun  was  gone. 

"  We  return  thanks  to  our  grandfather  Heno,  that  he  has  protected 
his  grandchildren  from  witches  and  reptiles,  and  has  given  to  us  his 
rain. 

"We  return  thanks  to  the  sun,  that  he  has  looked  upon  the  earth 
with  a  beneficient  eye. 

"  Lastly,  we  return  thanks  to  the  Great  Spirit,  in  whom  is  embodied 
all  goodness,  and  who  directs  all  things  for  the  good  of  his  children."3» 

The  fifth  regular  festival  and  the  last  so  closely  connected 
with  agricultural  interests  was  the  Thanksgiving  to  Our  Sup 
porters,  held  for  four  days  after  the  harvest  had  been  made. 
The  festival  resembled  closely  the  Green  Corn  Festival  and 

39  Morgan,  I,  194-195. 


AFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  69 

had  for  its  especial  object  the  thanking  of  those  inseparables, 
the  corn,  bean  and  squash,  together  with  the  triad  of  spirits 
that  cared  for  them.  "These  religious  councils  were  seasons 
of  animation  and  excitement.  The  greater  activity  in  social 
intercourse  among  the  people,  generally  awakened  by  these 
ceremonies  and  feastivities,  contributed  largely  to  keep  up  the 
spirit  of  these  occasions."40 

The  New  Year's  Festival,  the  most  important  and  longest 
of  the  Iroquois  religious  ceremonies,  is  related  directly  to  the 
White  Dog  Feast  and  the  more  ancient  Dream  Feast,  being 
held  at  the  same  season  of  the  year  and  including  the  same  sort 
of  activities.  The  ceremony,  commencing  about  the  first  of 
February,  usually  lasted  seven  days.  Confession  before  the 
beginning  of  this  ceremony  was  more  thorough  than  on  any 
other  occasion.  The  central  object  seems  to  have  been  the 
burning  of  the  dog  or  dogs.  All  the  sins  of  the  people  had 
been  collected  and  concentrated  in  the  Keepers  of  the  Faith 
who  "by  some  peculiar  manoeuvering "  transferred  them  to 
two  individuals  who  in  turn  "by  some  peculiar  ceremony" 
worked  them  off  into  the  strangled  dog.41  The  creature  was 
strangled  on  the  first  day,  this  method  of  killing  being  em 
ployed  to  prevent  bloodshed  since  the  spilling  of  a  drop  of 
blood  nullified  the  whole  proceeding.  Then  the  paint,  feathers 
and,  in  recent  times,  the  ribbons  which  pious  persons  had  given 
in  order  to  receive  blessings,  were  put  on  the  dog.  Thus  deco 
rated,  it  was  hung  some  eight  feet  in  the  air  on  a  pole.  There 
it  remained  until  burned  on  the  fifth  day.  The  second,  third 
and  fourth  days  were  passed  in  ways  reminiscent  of  the  seven 
teenth  century  and  of  the  account  of  the  Dream  Feast  wit 
nessed  by  Fathers  Dablon  and  Chaumonot.42  Formal  visits 
were  made ;  dances  were  performed ;  gifts  were  collected,  even 
legitimately  stolen,  for  the  feast;  persons  masqueraded; 
dreams  were  guessed  and  solemnly  fulfilled;  games  were 

40/&.,  198. 

41  Clark,   59.     Morgan,  Boyle  and  others  fail  to  mention  this  fact 
which  Clark  says  he  saw.     They  regard  the  dog  simply  as  a  means  of 
communicating  with  the  Great  Spirit.     Usage  may  have  differed  for 
Morgan  wrote  of  his  observations  chiefly  among  the  Senecas,  Boyle  c 
later     Canadian     Iroquois     and     Clark     of     mid-nineteenth     century 
Onondagas. 

42  See  pp.  36-39. 


70  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

played.  "In  this  manner  every  house  was  made  a  scene  of 
gaiety  and  amusement,  for  none  was  so  humble  or  so  retired 
as  to  remain  unvisited."43  On  the  early  morning  of  the  fifth 
day  the  white  dog  was  burned  on  a  wood  pyre.  This  cere 
monial  burning  was  preceded  by  a  speech  of  thanksgiving, 
after  which  a  solemn  procession  bore  the  dog  to  the  fire  and 
the  Great  Spirit  was  invoked.  A  long  religious  address  was 
made,  the  body  of  which  was  like  the  address  given  topic  by 
topic  just  above  in  connection  with  the  Green  Corn  Festival. 
The  introduction,  however,  consisted  of  an  invocation  of 
Hawenneyu  requesting  him  to  make  his  people  steadfast  in  the 
performance  of  duties.44  In  contrast  with  this  long  address 
given  at  the  Seneca  ceremony  it  is  interesting  to  compare  the 
brief  one  used  by  the  Canadian  Iroquois. 

"  We  ask  that  the  sun  will  continue  to  shine  on  us  and  make  all 
things  grow. 

"  We  ask  that  the  moon  may  always  give  us  light  by  night. 

"  We  ask  that  the  clouds  may  never  cease  to  give  us  rain  and  snow. 

"We  ask  that  the  winds  may  always  blow. 

"We  ask  that  the  trees  and  plants  may  always  grow. 

"We  ask  that  Thou  (Great  Spirit)  would  send  all  sorts  of  animals 
for  food  and  clothing,  and  make  the  birds  increase  in  number."45 

The  religious  exercises  of  the  sixth  day  were  concluded  by 
the  Feather  Dance,  though  other  dances  were  performed  and 
the  usual  feast  consumed.  The  seventh  and  last  day  was  given 
over  to  a  thanksgiving  concert  and  to  the  playing  of  the  peach- 
stone  game.46 

«  Morgan,  I,  204. 

44/&.,  210-213;  Parker:  Code,  85-94,  being  the  translation  of  the 
Seneca  prayer  as  recorded  on  the  Cattaraugus  Reservation  in  Febru 
ary,  1906. 

*5  Boyle,  267. 

46  Morgan's  account  is  of  the  Senecas  of  the  fifth  decade  of  the  last 
century.  Clark  describes  what  he  saw  at  Onondaga  at  the  opening 
of  the  same  decade  (I,  55-62).  He  says  that  the  ceremony  was  com 
pleted  by  a  War  Dance.  The  brief  account  given  by  Boyle  for  the 
Canadian  Iroquois  just  before  1900  should  be  compared  with  Hale's 
statement  of  what  he  saw  and  heard  among  them  some  twenty  years 
after  Morgan's  account  was  written  (Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour.,  VII,  7-14). 
Beauchamp  recounts  what  Albert  Cusick  told  him  of  the  feast  among 
the  Onondagas  (Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  I,  198-199).  Parker:  Code,  81-85, 
contains  an  account  of  the  festival  at  Newtown,  Cattaraugus  Reserva 
tion,  January,  1905. 


AFFECTED  BY  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES.  71 

GENERAL  SUMMARY  OF  CHRISTIAN  INFLUENCES. 

From  a  consideration  of  the  things  religious  that  the  Iro- 
quois  took  over  from  the  Whites,  much  of  it  being  palpably 
imitation  of  Christian  ways  and  words,  it  is  to  be  seen  that 
fundamentally  the  Iroquois  was  little  affected;  that  which 
he  did  take  were  largely  the  superficialities,  the  outward  signs 
of  Christianity.  The  depths  of  its  thought  were  not  plumbed 
by  him.  The  idea  of  atonement,  for  instance,  was  not  under 
stood,  so  that  Iroquois  confession  was  never  Christian.  The 
central  rite  of  Christianity,  the  communion,  was  never  taken 
over  by  the  pagan  Iroquois.  The  prayers  quoted  in  connection 
with  the  festivals  show  how  the  older  spirits  remained  and 
functioned  and  how  the  Great  Spirit  was  simply  added  to  the 
host  of  deities  already  existing.  The  labors  of  Handsome 
Lake  made  the  Great  Spirit  superior  to  and  ruler  over  all 
spirits.  That  the  Iroquois  so  easily  accepted  the  notion  that 
his  good  conduct  was  sanctioned  and  his  bad  conduct  was  dis 
approved  by  religion,  is  explicable  by  the  native  situation. 
The  fact  that  his  conduct  ordinarily  was  bound  up  somehow 
with  his  gods,  that  he  knew  that  he  and  his  gods  always  had 
been  interested  in  each  other's  conduct,  made  it  possible  for 
him,  when  he  was  led  to  make  some  distinction  between  what 
are  called  morality  and  religion,  to  comprehend  and  to  accept 
the  teaching  of  the  missionary  that  there  is  a  deity  who  over 
sees  all  men's  thoughts  and  actions.  With  this  belief  could 
come  a  notion  of  sin  and  the  adoption  of  a  heaven  that  was 
a  different  place  from  the  realms  of  Jouskeha  and  Atahentsic. 
These  gods,  along  with  Agreskoue,  faded  and  disappeared; 
Tarenyawagon  became  less  important  and  dreams  became  some 
what  less  commanding.  But  while  the  greater  deities  were 
suffering  largely  because  they  were  so  near  the  exalted  Great 
Spirit,  the  minor  spirits  with  their  many  earthly  duties  that 
demanded  daily  attention,  bowed  acknowledgment  to  the  Great 
Spirit  and  persisted  along  with  their  work. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

IROQUOIS  MORALITY  AND  ITS  RELATION  TO  THEIR  RELIGION. 
DEFINITION  AND  REMARKS. 

THE  Iroquois  conception  of  moral  conduct  was  conditioned 
largely  by  the  fact  that  they  formed  a  relatively  small  kin- 
group  whose  members  dwelt  in  a  but  slightly  artificial  en 
vironment  and  lived  lives  fraught  with  danger  whether  from 
other  men  and  animals  or  from  disease,  famine  and  such  other 
ills  as  appear  in  a  society  hampered  by  the  fewness  of  invented 
and  discovered,  physical  and  intellectual  aids  to  human  en 
deavor.  To  them  right  was  that  which  tradition,  custom  and 
accepted  ways  of  doing  things  prescribed,  and  wrong  was  the 
failure  to  do  as  tradition,  custom  and  accepted  ways  of  acting 
demanded.  Their  morals  are  to  be  defined  as  those  motives, 
notions  and  particularly  those  modes  of  intercourse  and  action 
which  the  community  approved  of  as  right  or  disapproved 
of  as  wrong. 

In  order  to  determine  the  extent  of  the  relations  between 
Iroquois  religion  and  morality  it  will  be  necessary  not  only  to 
note  the  religious  content  discernible  in  some  forms  of  moral 
conduct  and  the  significance  of  religious  belief  and  practice 
for  morality,  but  also  to  observe  what  modes  of  ethical  action 
were  independent  of  religion.  Such  distinctions  of  course  can 
not  always  be  made,  for  the  native  neither  thought  of  nor  con 
formed  his  acts  to  them.  In  connection  wtih  the  Iroquois  the 
subject  is  complicated  further  by  the  accident  of  America's 
discovery  and  its  occupation  by  Europeans.  Because  of  that 
occupation  it  can  not  be  asked  simply:  To  what  extent  and 
how  were  religious  influences  at  work  at  various  times  through 
out  the  few  centuries  under  examination?  For  the  question 
frequently  arises:  Is  the  practice  native?  If  influenced  by 
contact  with  the  Whites,  to  what  extent  and  in  what  way  has 
it  been  affected? 

72 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  73 

THE  MORALITY  OF  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

It  is  a  matter  of  course  that  since  Iroquois  religious  conduct 
and  thought  were  approved  by  the  community  they  were  also 
moral  conduct  and  thought.  Two  general  comments  on  their 
religion  from  the  standpoint  of  their  ethics  are  worth  making. 
In  the  first  place  it  happened  that  among  the  Iroquois  religion 
did  not  hinder  to  any  great  extent  the  conduct  of  political, 
economic  and  social  life  by  encumbering  that  life  with  many 
requirements  of  time,  energy  and  things.  A  re-examination 
of  the  religious  practices  already  described  shows  that  either 
because  of  the  time  when  such  demands  were  made  or  because 
of  the  nature  and  amount  of  the  demands,  the  time  and  energy 
and  things  given  over  to  religious  uses  could  have  been  but  of 
slight  consequence  in  the  development  of  political,  economic 
and  social  affairs.  Those  acquainted  with  the  life  of  savages 
in  many  parts  of  the  world  or  even  with  ancient  civilizations 
may  wonder  whether  this  generalization  concerning  the  Iro 
quois  be  not  false  because  of  the  role  of  the  taboo  which  so 
often  elsewhere  and  in  ancient  times  hampered  practical  ac 
tion  or  actually  forbade  it  or  the  use  of  an  implement  best  fitted 
to  effect  some  practical  end.  The  reader  of  the  history  of  the 
Iroquois  is  surprised  to  find  how  rarely  taboos  interfered  with 
their  conduct  of  mundane  affairs.  The  Iroquois,  he  learns, 
appear  never  to  have  had  prohibitions  against  adopting  such 
valuable  foreign  articles  as  guns  or  knives  or  cloth.  Moreover 
he  notes  that  often  the  taboo  was  helpful  in  the  work  of  daily 
life.  It  was  advantageous  to  have  a  powerful  taboo  upon 
story-telling  during  the  busy  summer-time.  During  the  ini 
tiation  ceremony  the  taboos  aided  in  strengthening  the  re 
ligious  emotion  that  did  so  much  to  give  significance  and  value 
to  that  ceremony.  A  taboo  might  have  a  distinctly  ethical 
tendency.  The  injunction  that  the  bones  of  valuable  animals 
must  be  handled  with  circumspection  and  kept  from  dogs  was 
conducive  to  the  creation  of  a  respectful  attitude.  It  is  true 
that  the  records  sometimes  mention  that  fear  for  the  conse 
quences  of  some  act  which  is  observed  frequently  in  other  parts 
of  the  world  and  which  appears  to  be  due  rather  to  magical 
than  to  religious  belief.  The  Jesuits  refer  all  too  casually  to 
the  Iroquois  fear  of  baptism  or  of  telling  their  personal  names, 
knowledge  of  which  would  give  the  Jesuit  power  to  cause  the 


74  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

death  of  the  man.1  But  such  references  whether  in  myths 
or  in  other  records  are  so  scanty  that  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
to  what  extent  that  type  of  belief  and  the  taboos  following 
from  it,  existed.  This  lack  of  evidence  certainly  is  an  indica 
tion  that  in  the  period  under  review  the  Iroquois  were  not 
influenced  on  a  great  scale  in  their  daily  life  by  that  type  of 
taboo.  Of  even  greater  significance  is  the  fact  that  the  Iro 
quois  himself  could  see  the  practical  evil  that  flowed  from 
some  ancient  custom  and  could  overcome  it.  A  notable  illus 
tration  is  derived  from  the  history  of  the  Feast  of  the  Dead. 
In  the  eighteenth  century  the  extravagant  giving  and  the  reck 
less  distribution  of  valuable  furs  and  other  articles  were  waste 
ful  and  impoverishing,  and  were  recognized  as  such.  Hand 
some  Lake  preached  against  this  lavishment,  called  upon  the 
Great  Spirit  to  aid  him  and  brought  about  the  abolition  of 
the  old  elaborate  feast.  It  does  seem  true,  therefore,  that, 
whatever  the  reason  may  be,  the  Iroquois  religion  in  the  last 
few  centuries  in  fact  did  not  interfere  noticeably  with  conduct 
in  the  secular  world. 

In  the  second  place,  among  the  Iroquois  religion  was  clearly 
of  tremendous  significance  as  a  valuating  agency  and  as  a 
sanction.  In  this  life  it  cast  the  spell  of  the  sacred  over  the 
great  needs  of  the  workaday  world  so  that  secular  demands  be 
came  also  spiritual  and  were  met  and  striven  for  more  hopefully. 
What  are  to  us  non-religious  acts  frequently  were  performed  in 
a  religious  "  frame  of  mind  "  and  that  attitude  increased  the 
importance  of  those  acts.  Its  evocation  often  in  meeting 
secular  demands  helps  to  explain  the  frequency  with  which  the 
religious  sanction  was  used  to  make  obligatory  essentially  non- 
religious  conduct.  Those  forms  of  conduct,  for  example, 
which  are  demanded  nowadays  for  political,  legal  or  military 
reasons  or  because  conscience  or  custom  sanctions  them  were 
forms  usually  sanctioned  among  the  Iroquois  by  religion.  In 
fact,  as  has  been  said,  the  religious  was  the  most  effective  and 
the  most  widely  used  of  Iroquois  sanctions.  This  difference  of 
the  Iroquois  from  us  is  accentuated  further  by  the  fact  that,  on 
the  other  hand,  such  matters  as  marriages  and  chastity,  truth 
fulness  and  other  virtues  which  among  us  are  sanctioned  gen- 

iXLII  J.  R.  (1655-1656),  135;  XLIII  J.  R.  (1656-1657),  309-311. 
On  personal  names  cf.  Goldenweiser  (1912),  469-470;  (1913),  366-368. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  75 

erally  by  religion,  among  the  Iroquois  were  subject  rather  to 
the  sanction  of  custom  and  public  opinion.  These  generaliza 
tions  will  enter  into  subsequent  discussion. 

RELIGION  AND  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

A  great  political  function  and  the  first  one  that  a  young 
man  participated  in  was  the  initiation  ceremony  at  puberty. 
Yet  the  religious  predominated.  The  youth  needed  purifica 
tion  and  he  cleansed  himself  by  the  performance  of  unusual 
acts  in  some  lonesome  spot.  These  acts  attuned  him  to  the 
spiritual.  His  dream  came  and  he  received  his  guardian  and 
charm.  In  fact,  although  the  object  was  the  practical  one  of 
inducting  him  into  the  position  of  a  man,  so  important  a  part 
did  religious  conduct  play  that  the  whole  ceremony  may  be 
called  religious.  Religious  ceremony  pointed  out  the  path  he 
was  to  take  in  life,  gave  him  a  guardian  genius  as  a  religious 
aid  in  the  crises  of  life  and  imbued  him  with  that  confidence 
in  life  which  must  come  from  the  knowledge  of  the  possession 
of  a  personal  oki  and  the  actual  ownership  of  its  symbolic 
charm  in  skin,  knife  or  feather.  Moreover,  it  was  the  religious 
ceremony  that  was  used  to  make  the  youth  realize,  mayhap 
hazily,  both  the  importance  of  and  the  responsibility  attached 
to  his  attainment  of  manhood.2  It  is  to  be  noted  in  passing 
that  it  was  this  association  of  religion  with  dreams  that  gave 
the  great  value  to  certain  dreams  and  things  dreamed.  Re 
ligion  was  the  supreme  evaluating  agency,  the  dream  often  was 
both  astonishing  and  impressive;  association  of  the  two  ap 
pears  to  have  been  a  natural  consequence,  particularly  when 
some  spirit  was  involved  in  the  dream.  Once  that  association 
was  made,  the  dream,  especially  the  "supernatural"  dream, 
could  become  so  important  that  belief  therein  would  be  un 
shakable.  One  does  not  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  Jesuits 
complained  that  the  greatest  obstacle  to  conversion  was  the 
Iroquois  faith  in  dreams. 

A  second  great  political  function  was  the  Condoling  Cere- 

2  This  religious  aspect  of  guardian  spirits  was  widespread  among 
many  Indian  tribes  of  North  America.  It  has  been  diminishing  among 
the  Iroquois,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  not  true  for 
them.  It  is  a  characteristic  religious  phenomenon  of  the  North 
American  Indians. 


76  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

mony.  It  was  also  in  part  a  religious  ceremony.  Several 
writers  have  described  this  council  at  length  so  that  an  addi 
tional  description  may  be  omitted.3  Although  the  occasion 
was  that  of  the  death  of  one  and  the  choice  of  a  succeeding 
political  officer — either  a  lord,  peace-chief  or  sachem,  or,  when 
needed,  a  deputy,  assistant  or  war  chief — in  the  eyes  of  the 
performers  this  political  ceremony  was  also  religious.  The 
use  of  phrases  and  cries  similar  to  those  employed  in  burial 
ceremonies*  and  of  the  Karenna  or  sacred  hymn,5  the  taboo 
on  certain  times  of  performance  as  dangerous  to  crops,6  the 
danger  that  came  if  before  burial  the  horns,  symbolic  of 
sachemship,  were  not  removed  from  the  head  of  the  dead  chief,7 
even  the  use  of  phrases  whose  meaning  no  longer  wras  known 
to  the  speaker,8  are  signs  of  the  penetration  of  this  political 
ceremony  by  religion.  Furthermore,  the  solemnity,  the  grief 
and  the  appeal  for  aid  to  the  Founders  of  the  League  as  to 
divine  powers,  indicate  that  the  attitude  was  not  merely  a 
secular  one  but  was  also  religious.  The  value  of  it  all  in  the 
eyes  of  the  participants  was  not  simply  the  value  that  attached 
to  mundane  things.  There  was  an  awfulness,  a  sacredness,  a 
supreme  value  about  it  all  that  only  religion  could  give. 

Yet  the  actual  choice  of  a  sachem  was  not  governed  by  any 
religious  consideration.  It  was  laid  down9  that  the  title  rested 
with  the  same  family  and  clan  to  which  belonged  the  members 

s  Scott:  Deganawida  Myth.  Hale:  Book  of  Rites.  Scott,  pp.  237- 
246,  reprints  a  translation  of  a  part  of  the  condoling  rites  given  in 
original  and  translation  by  Hale,  pp.  117-139.  The  former  also  trans 
lates  the  words  of  an  introductory  ceremony  to  the  Condolence,  pp. 
234-237,  that  is  not  to  be  found  in  Hale. 
Hale:  "  Iroquois  Condoling  Council,"  in  Trans.  Royal  Soc.  Canada,  2d 

ser.,  I   (1895-1896),  Section  II,  45-65. 
Parker:    Constitution    of   the   Five    Nations.     Introductory    ceremony 

mentioned  above  is  given  also  by  Parker,  pp.  110  sq. 
Morgan,  I,  59-71,  83-84,  109-116. 
Chadwick:  People  of  the  Long  House,  32-53. 
Beauchamp:  Religious  and  Mourning  Councils,  N.  Y.  S.  M.  Bull.  113. 

*  Hewitt  offers  an  explanation  of  the  origin  of  the  cry  used  in  the 
Condolence.  Cf.  Am.  Anthr.,  XI,  286-287. 

s  Hale:  Rites,  123;  cf.  62-64.     Hewitt,  Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.,  IV,  35-41. 

e  Hewitt,  ib.,  33-34. 

T  Scott,  234 ;  cf.  Parker,  u.  s.,  109. 

s  Hale:  Rites,  64. 

»  Scott,  232-233;  cf.  Parker,  39-44;  Goldenweiser   (1912),  468. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  77 

of  the  first  confederate  council  and  that  a  nominee  was  to  be 
named  by  the  women  of  that  family  and  clan,  the  Chief 
Matron  being  spokesman.  When  a  vacancy  occurred  because 
of  the  deposition  of  a  lord,  the  Chief  Matron  of  his  family 
and  clan  named  another  warrior  of  her  family  and  clan  as  the 
successor  and  crowned  him  with  the  deer's  horns.  That  simple 
act  made  him  a  sachem;  no  further  ceremony  was  required. 
But  if  a  vacancy  occurred  because  of  the  death  of  a  lord  or 
sachem,  the  successor  was  chosen  in  a  different  manner.  The 
Chief  Matron  and  the  warriors  of  the  family  and  clan  of  the 
deceased  nominated  another  lord  from  the  warriors  of  the 
family  and  clan  of  the  dead  sachem,  and  the  nomination  was 
submitted  to  the  lords  of  the  phratry  of  the  deceased.  If  they 
confirmed  it  the  matter  was  submitted  for  further  confirma 
tion  first  to  the  other  phratry  of  that  clan  and  then  to  the 
corresponding  phratries  in  Confederate  Council  assembled.  It 
was  after  this  procedure  that  the  candidate  went  through  the 
Condolence  Ceremony.  If  a  title  was  threatened  with  extinc 
tion  because  of  the  death  of  the  last  member  of  the  family  and 
clan  to  which  the  title  belonged,  it  reverted  to  the  Confederate 
Council  wrhich  appointed  a  successor  from  any  family  of  the 
phratry  of  the  deceased  sachem.  They  could  invest  the  title 
in  that  family  there  to  remain  as  long  as  they  were  satisfied. 
Finally,  if  the  Chief  Matron  of  a  family  and  clan  in  which  a 
lordship  title  was  vested,  died  and  left  females  too  young  to 
nominate  candidates,  the  lords  of  the  tribe  undertook  that  office 
until  in  their  opinion  and  upon  the  request  of  the  heirs,  the 
females  were  old  enough  to  undertake  properly  the  making  of 
nominations.  So  in  no  case  was  religion  called  upon  to  aid 
in  choosing  a  new  sachem  or  a  war  chief.  It  was  when  deal 
ing  not  with  the  new  lord  but  with  him  who  just  had  died 
that  religion  figured  as  described.  Even  in  the  choice  of  that 
third  type,  the  Pine-Tree  Chief,  religion  did  not  enter.  For 
the  Deganawida  Myth  states  simply  that  if  a  warrior  were 
found  to  be  wise  and  trustworthy  and  if  he  were  a  person  who 
helped  his  people  and  therefore  aided  the  Confederacy,  the 
lords  could  acclaim  him  publicly  and  confer  upon  him  the 
title  of  Self-Made  or  Second  Chief,10  the  title  to  hold  only 
during  his  life  time. 

10  Scott,  233 ;  Parker,  41 ;  cf.  Converse,  54-56. 


78  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

In  all  important  councils — the  Deganawida  Myth  made  it 
mandatory  for  all  Confederate  Councils — a  chant  or  prayer 
preceded  and  concluded  the  consideration  of  business.11  No 
other  religious  practices,  except  those  referred  to  in  connection 
with  the  Condolence,  were  connected  with  political  councils. 
The  role  of  the  religious  in  political  affairs  was  not  fixed. 
Two  extremes  may  be  recognized.  The  puberty  ceremony, 
which  was  an  individual  and  not  a  conciliar  matter,  although 
it  was  an  admission-to-citizenship  ceremony  was  nevertheless 
a  religious  ceremony  throughout.  On  the  other  hand  religious 
play  in  ordinary  councils  probably  was  nil.  The  prayers, 
being  customary,  may  have  had  as  little  force  as  those  that 
open  meetings  of  our  legislative  bodies.  The  Condolence  is 
intermediate  since  in  dealing  with  the  dead  it  was  religious 
but  in  dealing  with  the  living  it  was  secular. 

RELIGION  AND  ECONOMIC  INSTITUTIONS. 

The  Iroquois  religion  since  at  least  the  time  of  Handsome 
Lake  was  concerned  largely  with  food-getting  activities.  With 
the  exception  of  some  minor  practices12  the  religious  rites  con 
nected  with  economic  life  have  been  stated,  and  from  the  de 
scriptions  it  is  plain  that  Iroquois  religion  interfered  little 
with  the  actual  work  of  food  procurance.  The  women  may 
have  danced  to  the  Three  Sisters,  but  they  nevertheless  care 
fully  tended  to  the  crops  themselves  and  did  not  leave  them 
entirely  to  the  care  of  the  Sisters.  John  Obadiah  may  have 
weakened  himself  by  fasting  and  by  drinking  as  an  emetic  the 
liquid  of  boiled  green  osiers  before  he  went  a-hunting,  but  this 
apparently  unrelated  means  did  give  him  an  amount  of  con 
fidence  that  went  far  toward  bringing  him  his  deer.13  Another 
interesting  illustration  is  the  reason  given  by  the  Iroquois  for 
not  making  a  practice  of  telling  stories  in  the  summer-time. 
Many  myths  dealt  with  spirits  and  had  a  quasi-sacred  char- 

11  Morgan,  I,  105;  Chadwick,  49;  Hale,  62. 

12  For  example,  Converse :  34,  note  3,  on  sun  and  moon  dances ;  63, 
note  3,  on  society  of  women  that  propitiated  the  Three   Sisters;  66, 
on  blessing  of  fields  at  planting  time ;  101,  note  1,  on  propitiation  of 
dwarf  stone-givers. 

13  Beauchamp :  Iroquois  Trail,  92.     Cusick  gives  an  account  of  hunt 
ing  customs  on  pp.  34-35  and  Beauchamp  comments  upon  them,  pp. 
91-92,  112. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  79 

acter  which  revealed  itself  in  the  religious  "  tone  of  mind  "  of 
the  narrator.  Everyone  knew  that  the  spirits  hibernated  in 
the  winter.  Legends  therefore  could  be  told  safely  only  in 
the  winter-time,  for  in  the  summer  the  spirits  were  about  and 
were  listening  and  might  be  offended  at  what  was  said  or  might 
become  so  interested  that  they  would  neglect  their  duties. 
This  explanation  hints  at  a  more  practical  one  of  why  these 
entrancing  myths  could  be  related  properly  only  during  the 
weary,  time-dragging  and  bleak  winter  season  and  not  during 
the  summer  with  its  fighting,  fishing  and  farming  demands.14 
Moreover,  although  religious  festivals  had  to  be  performed  in 
connection  with  planting,  harvesting  and  other  farm  activities, 
the  fact  that  the  number  of  festivals  was  small,  that  generally 
they  lasted  but  a  few  days  and  were  performed  before  or  after 
the  particular  economic  labor  itself,  brought  it  about  that 
actual  work  hardly  was  interfered  with.  Furthermore,  re 
ligion  did  not  forbid  good  ways  of  supplying  economic  wants. 
No  mention  is  made  anywhere,  for  example,  of  an  objection 
on  religious  grounds  to  the  use  of  the  white  man's  plow  or 
spade.  The  Iroquois  was  free  to  employ  the  best  means  she 
and  he  could  find  to  supply  food. 

On  the  other  hand,  by  means  of  the  performance  of  the 
intermediary,  indirectly  related  religious  ceremonies,  men  and 
women  were  filled  with  the  confidence  that  meant  much  for 
the  successful  outcome  of  the  practical,  economic  activities. 
Eeligion  entered  economic  life  not  simply  by  tying  together 
daily  labor  and  such  religious  beliefs  and  practices  as  have  been 
described,  but  also  by  calling  forth  a  religious  attitude  toward 
the  workaday  world  that  enhanced  the  value  of  the  work.  This 
fact  is  more  true  probably  for  the  nineteenth  century  than  for 
the  two  or  three  centuries  immediately  preceding.  For  prior 
to  the  days  of  Handsome  Lake  most  of  the  religious  ceremonies 
apparently  were  not  performed  at  stated  times  and  for  stated 
purposes,  but  seem  to  have  been  performed  when  a  particular 
crisis  such  as  a  famine  or  a  death  or  a  war  demanded  it.  But 
during  the  past  century  the  major  ceremonies  were  standard 
ized  and  were  performed  regularly  in  connection  with  food- 
getting  activities;  they  consequently  by  the  repetitive,  habitual 

i*  Schoolcraft :  Myth  of  Hiawatha,  p.  xxiii ;  Converse,  10-11  and  the 
delightful  paragraph,  106-107. 


80  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

appeal  to  the  feeling  of  the  holy,  threw  an  atmosphere  of 
sacredness  about  economic  duties  and  acts  which  could  not 
have  been  evoked  solely  by  these  duties  and  acts;  these  forth 
with  became  even  more  valuable  and  more  necessary  than  they 
had  been  heretofore.  There  was  a  reciprocal  relation.  The 
increased  importance  of  the  farming  life  since  the  days  of 
Handsome  Lake  drew  special  attention  to  the  religious  cere 
monies  that  aided  farming,  and  the  ceremonies  in  turn  in 
creased  the  value  of  that  basic,  economic  activity.  An  illus 
tration  of  this  interplay  is  found  in  the  history  of  the  role  of 
religion  in  the  raising  of  corn,  beans  and  squashes.  If  the  lack 
of  mention  be  a  proof,  the  Three  Sisters  were  unimportant 
before  Handsome  Lake's  time  and  before  the  change  from  a 
hunting,  fighting  life  to  a  farming  life.  But  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  under  the  new  conditions  already  described,  agricul 
ture  was  recognized  as  the  chief  occupation;  and  the  corn, 
beans  and  squash  were  the  chief  agricultural  products.  The 
Three  Sisters  consequently  attracted  more  attention;  they 
enter  definitely  into  at  least  two  of  the  half-dozen  great  re 
ligious  festivals  that  had  as  a  purpose  the  assurance  of  a  suffi 
cient  food  supply.  The  religious  ceremony  could  be  as  much 
a  means  of  economic  production  as  a  digging  stick.15 

But  all  economic  life  was  not  so  affected.  A  review  of 
property  ownership,  for  instance,  shows  a  lack  of  religious 
influence.  The  forms  of  labor  and  the  means  of  production 
employed  by  the  Iroquois  make  it  certain  that  property  was 
limited  in  amount  and  in  diversity.  In  its  entirety  it  consisted 
of  "  planting  lots,  orchards,  houses,  implements  of  the  chase, 
weapons,  articles  of  apparel,  domestic  utensils,  personal  orna 
ments,  stores  of  grain,  skins  of  animals,  and  those  miscellan 
eous  fabrics  which  the  necessities  of  life  had  led  them  to 

is  Cf.  Clark  Wissler:  "The  Functions  of  Primitive  Ritualistic 
Ceremonies,"  Pop.  Sci.  Monthly,  LXXXVII  (Aug.,  1915),  200-203.  He 
says  that,  lacking  writing,  ceremonial  became  for  the  Indian  a  vehicle 
for  preserving  what  was  learned  from  experiment.  "  A  ritualistic  cere 
mony  in  primitive  life  ...  is  an  expression  of  a  specific  series  of 
procedures  so  dressed  and  arranged  as  to  hold  the  interest,  emotions 
and  retentive  activities  of  men.  Its  primary  function  is  to  perpetuate 
exact  knowledge  and  to  secure  precision  in  its  application"  (p.  203). 
From  what  is  said  in  the  text  it  is  plain  that  Wissler's  explanation  of 
the  function  of  a  ritual  is  very  incomplete  and  that  other  causes  also 
give  rise  to  the  use  of  ritualistic  ceremony. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  81 

invent."16  But  "the  individual  owned,  to  use  a  convenient 
measure,  only  what  he  could  carry  with  him  ...  As  a  member 
of  the  house,  clan  or  tribe,  he  had  a  special  property  in  other 
chattels  and  in  land  so  long  as  he  was  in  possession  and  use 
thereof  as  a  member  of  the  community.  But  when  this  rela 
tion  ended,  his  rights  ended  also."17  Since  husband  and  wife 
remained  members  of  the  clan  into  which  each  had  been  born, 
the  property  rights  of  each  continued  distinct  after  marriage. 
But  this  statement  is  not  to  be  construed  as  forbidding  the 
transfer  of  property.  The  clan  owned  the  dwelling  of  the 
household,  the  general  chattels  therein  as  well  as  the  persons, 
and  such  results  of  personal  labor,  invention  or  discovery  as 
trophies,  cures,  game  and  other  food.  This  generalization 
must  not  be  interpreted  too  strictly  since  at  times  the  Iroquois 
himself  did  not  make  clear-cut  distinctions.  The  tribe  was  the 
possessor  of  the  tribal  territory  it  occupied.  As  such  it  con 
trolled  the  hunting,  fishing  and  trading  rights  within  that 
territory  and  also  these  rights  of  tribal  members  when  exer 
cised  without  that  territory.  Such  other  chattels  as  wampum, 
slaves,  council-house  and  so  forth  belonged  to  the  tribe  if  they 
did  not  belong  to  the  clan  or  household.  There  was  also  a 
restricted  communism  for,  with  some  limitations,  food  was 
common.  That  fact  is  to  be  expected  since  the  Iroquois  lacked 
means  of  preserving,  buying  and  selling  food.  Nevertheless 
there  was  a  disparity  in  wealth.  When  one  of  the  Fathers, 
who  had  baptized  a  young  Seneca  woman  in  1669,  attempted 
to  console  the  mother  upon  the  subsequent  death  of  the 
daughter,  he  was  met  with  the  reply,  "Thou  dost  not  under 
stand.  She  was  a  mistress  here,  and  had  at  her  command 
more  than  twenty  slaves,  who  are  still  with  me.  She  never 
knew  what  it  was  to  go  to  the  forest  to  bring  wood,  or  to  the 
river  to  draw  water.  She  knew  nothing  about  housekeeping." 
Hence,  troubled  as  to  the  lot  of  her  daughter  in  the  land  of 
souls,  the  mother  urged  that  a  sick  slave  be  baptized,  intructed 
and  killed  so  that  she  could  follow  and  care  for  the  daughter.18 
This  brief  outline  is  sufficient  to  indicate  that  religion  had  little 
to  do  with  the  evaluation  and  distribution  of  property.  It  may 

is  Morgan,  I,  317. 

17/&.,  II  (note  101),  272  sq. 

is  Cf.  LIV  J.  R.  (1669-1670),  93-95. 


82  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

have  enhanced  the  value  of  such  objects  as  tobacco,  corn,  game, 
medicinal  herbs,  sundry  stones  and  so  forth,  because  the  acquisi 
tion  of  them  was  sometimes  dependent  in  part  upon  the  use 
of  religious  means  or  because  they  played  a  part  in  religious 
ritual.  But  on  the  whole  religious  influences  were  missing  in 
this  institution.  Property  did  not  attract  much  attention  to 
itself. 

RELIGION  AND  SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

Similarly,  matters  of  family  relationships  in  the  household 
group,  the  "  face-to-face  "  relations,  were  so  matter  of  course 
that  they  rarely  provoked  thought  about  themselves  and  there 
fore  did  not  provoke  the  religious  attitude.  Such  social  facts 
as  the  household-group,  clan  and  tribal  ties  and  relationships 
were  not  viewed  religiously.  The  presence,  however,  of  that 
will-o'-the-wisp  the  totem  suggests  the  guess  that  in  centuries 
long  gone  the  notion  of  kinship  and  the  religious  attitude 
somehow  were  connected.19  The  only  definite  religious  influ 
ence  in  social  life  before  the  coming  of  the  Europeans  was  the 
negative  or  restrictive  influence  of  taboos,  and  these,  as  preced 
ing  remarks  indicated,  were  few. 

Among  the  Iroquois  the  union  of  two  individuals  in  marriage 
was  a  simple  matter.  A  full-grown  man  needed  but  to  have 
his  proposal  accepted  by  a  woman  and  marriage  was  con 
tracted.  Mothers  frequently  arranged  the  marriage  of  their 
children,  often  without  the  knowledge  of  those  whose  union 
was  contemplated.  But  the  mothers  were  not  necessarily  arbi 
trary,  for  at  harvests  and  such  other  times  as  threw  young 
people  together  the  elders  studied  probable  matches.  Orphans 
could  contract  marriage  themselves.  Limitations  were  few. 
No  marriage  could  be  contracted  lawfully  between  members  of 
the  same  clan,  the  exogamous  rule  being  commanding  and 
binding.  Marriages  were  monogamous.  The  average  hunter 
could  not  provide  meat  for  several  wives.  It  will  be  recalled, 
however,  that  if  the  wife  would  not  or  could  not  accompany 
her  husband  on  trips  he  could  take  with  him  a  captive  or  a 
"  free  woman."  Incontinence  on  the  part  of  unmarried  women 
was  not  wrong,  but  a  wife  must  maintain  faith  with  her  hus 
band  at  all  times,  else  she  surely  will  bring  bad  luck  and  mis- 

19  Goldenweiser  (1912),  465-467  ;  (1913),  369-372. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  83 

fortune  upon  him.  Nevertheless  sex  irregularity  seems  not 
to  have  been  uncommon  but  was  not  so  rampant  as  some  writers 
aver.  It  appears  to  have  been  natural  rather  than  vicious.20 
The  occasions  upon  which  men  ought  to  avoid  women  have 
been  stated  (p.  49).  Divorce  was  unrestrained  and  continued 
to  be  of  frequent  occurrence  despite  Handsome  Lake's  in 
junctions.  A  quarrel  was  sufficient  cause  for  separation. 

The  education  of  children  was  mainly  in  the  hands  of  the 
mother  and  her  kin.  The  child  had  impressed  upon  it  that 
existence  depended  upon  a  great,  good  and  benevolent  spirit 
who  gave  life  and  the  maintenance  of  it,  and  who  expected  in 
return  grateful  worship  and  the  "doing  that  which  is  pleas 
ing  in  his  sight."  They  were  taught  to  look  to  their  elders 
for  information  and  example  of  how  to  act  and  always  to  be 
kind  to  the  aged  and  the  infirm;  they  themselves,  in  conse 
quence,  would  be  treated  kindly  in  old  age.  Children  were 
warned  that  there  were  good  and  bad  acts,  and  that  although 
they  could  act  as  they  pleased,  "  Good  acts  are  pleasing  to  the 
good  Spirit  which  gave  them  their  existence,  and  ...  on  the 
contrary,  all  that  is  bad  proceeds  from  the  bad  spirit  who  has 
given  them  nothing,  and  who  cannot  give  them  anything  that 
is  good,  because  he  has  it  not,  and  therefore  he  envies  them 
that  which  they  have  received  from  the  good  Spirit.  .  .  ." 
For  the  enforcement  of  these  teachings  the  obedient  child  was 
rewarded  with  praise  from  his  elders,  while  the  disobedient  one 
saw  only  sorrowful  faces  round  about  him.  If  the  recalcitrant 

20  Regarding-  social  ties,  see  Ch.  I,  18  sq.  and  notes  thereto.  Re 
garding  sex  relations  of  all  kinds  see 

La  Hontan,  II,  451-464  and  Lafitau's  criticism,  Moeurs,  I,  583-584. 
Bacqueville  de  La  Potherie,  III,  13-15,  18-20. 
Lafitau :  Moeurs,  I,  564-566,  577-580,  599 ;  II,  163-164. 
Charlevoix :  Voyage,  I,  178 ;  II,  36-43. 
Heckewelder,  ch.  XVI. 
XXXI  J.  R.    (1647),   83;   XLII   J.  R.    (1655-1656),   141;   XLIII  J.  R. 

(1656-1657),  265;  LI  J.  R.  (1666-1668),  125;  LVII  J.  R.  (1672-1673), 

135;  LVIII  J.  R.  (1673-1674),  205. 
Converse,  135-138. 
Stites,  27,  31,  38,  71,  85-95. 

Parker:  Maize,  22-24,  31;  Constitution,  123-125. 
Mrs.  Smith,  90-92. 
Morgan,  II  (note  103),  274-277. 
Goldenweiser  (1912),  464  sq. ;  (1913),  366  sq. 


84  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

child  persisted  in  his  misconduct,  condign  punishment  was 
visited  upon  him  in  the  form  of  water  which  was  sprinkled  or 
thrown  over  him.  Corporal  punishment,  confinement  and 
similar  severe  remedies  were  not  used.21  Such  was  the  account 
given  by  Heckewelder  who  spent  about  a  half-century  among 
the  Indians  of  our  central  East  during  the  life-time  of  Hand- 
same  Lake.  His  description  of  later  eighteenth  century  edu 
cation  contains  a  combination  of  ancient  moral  rules,  religious 
ideas  and  a  general  religious  sanction  that  was  in  great  part 
if  not  wholly  Christian.  The  precepts  themselves  are  native. 
The  punishments  are  native.  But  the  admonition  to  show 
gratitude  to  the  Giver  of  Life,  to  act  in  accordance  with  his 
wishes  and  to  avoid  the  influence  of  the  Evil  One,  is  a  Chris 
tian  turn.  The  sanction,  by  the  Great  Spirit,  of  good  conduct 
in  general  as  over  against  bad  conduct,  resulted  from  Chris 
tian  teaching.  Beside  this  newer  incentive  stood  that  older 
incentive  to  good  conduct,  the  power  of  the  word  of  the  elders 
and  the  promise  of  similar  treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  gen 
eration  to  come.  It  may  be  asserted  that  the  education  of 
children,  such  as  it  was,  was  not  influenced  by  religion  until 
missionary  teaching  made  itself  felt,  and  then  the  influence 
was  mainly  as  a  sanction  for  old  ways  of  rearing  the  young. 

From  remarks  made  at  various  times  it  is  seen  that  the  posi 
tion  of  women  was  anything  but  degrading.  It  has  been  stated 
that  women  had  charge  of  the  household,  could  own  property 
even  when  married,  played  an  important  part  in  religious  and 
political  affairs,  shared  the  responsibilities  of  providing  food 
for  the  community,  arranged  marriages  and  educated  the  little 
children.  To  these  rights  may  be  added  the  fact  that  women 
had  the  right  to  send  men  to  war  and  to  try  to  bring  about 
peace  when  war  existed.  As  mothers  of  posterity  they  were 
valued  more  highly  than  men.  The  composition  for  the  killing 
of  a  woman  was  twice  that  demanded  for  the  killing  of  a  man. 
Notwithstanding  the  possession  of  so  many  political,  social, 
religious  and  economic  rights  women  were  regarded  by  the 
men  and  by  themselves  as  being  somehow  inferior  to  men.22 

21  Heckewelder,   113-116.     Cf.   Lafitau,  I,   599;   Charlevoix,  u.  s.,  II, 
23,  24;  Loskiel,  Pt.  I,  ch.  V;  Bacqueville,  III,  16-17;  Parker:  Code  of 
Handsome  Lake,  34. 

22  Beauchamp  :  "  Iroquois  Women,"  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  XIII,  81-91,  281 ; 
Converse,  135-138;  Goldenweiser  (1912),  468-469. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  85 

RELIGION  AND  SOME  MISCELLANEOUS  INSTITUTIONS. 

The  Keepers  of  the  Faith  who  arranged  religious  festivals 
were  also  teachers  of  morals.23  As  instructed  by  Handsome 
Lake,  these  persons  urged  the  people  to  live  in  peace  and 
harmony,  to  avoid  evil  speaking,  to  be  hospitable  and  chari 
table  and  to  treat  orphans  kindly,  because  the  Great  Spirit  re 
warded  the  doers  of  good.  They  taught  too  that  wrongdoers 
should  not  be  treated  harshly,  and  that  one  should  not  make 
enemies  since  that  kindled  the  spirit  of  revenge.  It  seems  sure 
that  this  moral  function  of  the  Keepers  and  the  sanction  used 
are  not  much  more  than  a  century  old,  and  that  the  origin  of 
both  function  and  sanction  may  be  traced  to  the  changed  con 
ditions  that  resulted  from  the  formation  of  the  United  States 
and  the  teachings  of  Handsome  Lake  and  the  missionaries 
before  him.  Most,  perhaps  all,  of  the  moral  precepts  them 
selves  were  aboriginal. 

The  moral  influence  of  the  dance  was  attested  by  Morgan. 

"  With  the  Iroquois,  as  with  the  red  race  at  large,  dancing  was  not 
only  regarded  as  a  thanksgiving  ceremonial,  in  itself  acceptable  to  the 
Great  Spirit,  but  they  were  taught  to  consider  it  a  divine  art,  designed 
by  Ha-wen-ne-yu  for  their  pleasure,  as  well  as  for  his  worship.  It 
was  cherished  as  one  of  the  most  suitable  modes  of  social  intercourse 
between  the  sexes,  but  more  especially  as  the  great  instrumentality  for 
arousing  patriotic  excitement,  and  for  keeping  alive  the  spirit  of  the 
nation.  The  popular  enthusiasm  broke  forth  in  this  form,  and  was 
nourished  and  stimulated  by  this  powerful  agency.  .  .  .  The  first  stir 
of  feeling  of  which  the  Indian  youth  was  conscious  was  enkindled  by 
the  dance ;  the  first  impulse  of  patriotism,  the  earliest  dreams  of  ambi 
tion  were  awakened  by  their  (sic)  influences.  ...  It  was  more  in  the 
nature  of  a  spell  upon  the  people  than  of  a  rational  guiding  spirit."2* 

Charlevoix,  in  speaking  of  Indians  generally,  described  the 
fasts,  dreams,  dances,  songs>  feasts  and  the  conduct  of  medi 
cine  men  that  go  to  make  up  the  preparation  for  war.25  While 
on  the  one  hand  these  now  decadent  practices  were  performed 
in  order  to  raise  the  warriors  to  fighting  pitch,  to  work  them 
up  by  strenuous  physical  activity  and  to  "  do  something "  to 

23  Parker:  Constitution,  56;  Morgan,  I,  177-179. 

24  Morgan,  I,  249-250. 

25  Voyage,  I,  177-178,  186-195,  210-215.     Cf.  Loskiel,  Pt.  I,  141-159 
(ch.  XI);  Lafitau,  II,   162-199,   243-246,  248-257,  260-325;   Golden,   I, 
passim. 


86  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

ease  the  nervous  tension  under  stress  of  war  excitement  with 
the  dangers  and  tortures  and  deaths  of  war,  on  the  other  hand 
the  religious  attitude  underlay  and  largely  caused  the  activi 
ties.  For  by  fasting  the  mind  was  prepared  for  the  dreams 
that  Tarenyawagon  would  send,  and  these  would  foreshadow 
victory  or  defeat,  the  very  central  consideration.  The  medi 
cine  men  would  diminish  risks  by  enlisting  the  aid  of  Agre- 
skoue  through  the  use  of  dances  and  songs.  With  risks  dimin 
ished,  with  divine  aid  assured,  the  victory  could  not  be  in 
doubt.  Religious  ceremonial,  like  the  arrow,  was  a  means  to 
this  end. 

Hospitality  well  may  be  denominated  the  cardinal  attrac 
tive  practice  of  the  Iroquois.  Morgan  with  his  customary  en 
thusiastic  appreciation  of  the  finer  side  of  Iroquois  life,  painted 
an  alluring  picture. 

"Perhaps  no  people  ever  carried  this  principle  to  the  same  degree 
of  universality,  as  did  the  Iroquois.  Their  houses  were  not  only  open 
to  each  other,  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  of  the  night,  but  also  to  the 
wayfarer  and  the  stranger.  Such  entertainment  as  their  means 
afforded  was  freely  spread  before  him,  with  words  of  kindness  and  of 
welcome.  ...  If  a  neighbor  or  a  stranger  entered  her  dwelling,  a  dish 
of  hommony,  or  whatever  else  she  had  prepared,  was  immediately  placed 
before  him,  with  an  invitation  to  partake.  It  made  no  difference  at 
what  hour  of  the  day,  or  how  numerous  the  calls,  this  courtesy  was 
extended  to  every  comer,  and  was  the  first  act  of  attention  bestowed. 
This  custom  was  universal,  in  fact  one  of  the  laws  of  their  social 
system ;  and  a  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  wife  to  observe  it,  was  re 
garded  both  as  a  breach  of  hospitality,  and  as  a  personal  affront.  A 
neighbor,  or  a  stranger,  calling  from  house  to  house,  through  an  Indian 
village,  would  be  thus  entertained  at  every  dwelling  he  entered.  If  the 
appetite  of  the  guest  had  thus  been  fully  satisfied,  he  was  yet  bound  in 
courtesy  to  taste  of  the  dish  presented,  and  to  return  the  customary 
acknowledgment.  .  .  .  '  I  thank  you ; '  an  omission  to  do  either  being 
esteemed  a  violation  of  the  usages  of  life.  A  stranger  would  be  thus 
entertained  without  charge,  as  long  as  he  was  pleased  to  remain ;  and 
a  relation  was  entitled  to  a  home  among  any  of  his  kindred,  while  he 
was  disposed  to  claim  it.  Under  the  operation  of  such  a  simple  and 
universal  law  of  hospitality,  hunger  and  destitution  were  entirely 
unknown  among  them."26 

Le  Jeune  wrote  that 

"No  Hospitals  are  needed  among  them,  because  there  are  neither 
mendicants  nor  paupers  as  long  as  there  are  any  rich  people  among 

261,  318-319.     Cf.  Clark,  I,  95-96;  Parker:  Maize,  61-65. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  87 

them.  Their  kindness,  humanity,  and  courtesy  not  only  make  them 
liberal  with  what  they  have,  but  cause  them  to  possess  hardly  anything 
except  in  common.  A  whole  village  must  be  without  corn,  before  any 
individual  can  be  obliged  to  endure  privation.  They  divide  the  pro 
duce  of  their  fisheries  equally  with  all  who  come;  and  the  only  re 
proach  they  address  to  us  (Jesuit  missionaries  among  the  Iroquois)  is 
our  hesitation  to  send  to  them  oftener  for  our  supply  of  provisions."27 

In  Morgan's  account  a  Christian  influence  is  plain.  At  least 
since  the  days  of  Handsome  Lake  hospitality  was  enjoined 
by  the  Great  Spirit.  He  had  made  all  and  had  given  every 
thing  for  the  many  and  not  for  the  few.  Naturally  each  must 
give  of  his  to  supply  a  neighbor's  wants.28  There  was  prob 
ably  a  more  primitive,  quasi-religious  sanction.  Among  the 
tales  dealing  with  strangers  is  one  of  a  repulsive  old  man  wrho 
was  received  by  none  but  a  poor  woman.  He  rewarded  her 
kindness  and  hospitality  by  revealing  to  her  some  secret  cures 
of  diseases.29  Apparently  the  notion  that  the  mana  of  a 
stranger  may  be  uncommon  and  therefore  he  should  be  treated 
well,  lies  back  of  the  tale. 

In  by-gone  days  the  method  of  healing  frequently  was  satu 
rated  with  religious  feeling  which  was  essential  for  the  success 
of  the  cure.  Mention  has  been  made  of  the  fact  that  ordinarily 
the  medicine  man  caused  the  patient  to  fast  and  himself  per 
formed  various  violent  and  unusual  acts  that  induced  in  him  a 
feeling  of  exaltation,  without  which  he  was  unable  to  overcome 
the  power  of  the  demon  that  made  the  patient  suffer.  These 
doctors  frequently  were  members  of  secret  societies  and  these 
afford  excellent  illustration  of  how  certain  forms  of  behavior, 
that  have  become  associated  with  religion,  were  essential  in 
assuring  the  healing  power  of  a  medicine.  One  of  the  oldest  of 
these  societies,  a  Seneca  medicine  society  called  the  Guardian 
of  the  Little  Waters,  is  described  in  detail  by  Arthur  C. 
Parker,  himself  a  member,  to  whom  the  myth  of  the  origin  of 
the  association  was  related  by  Cornplanter.  The  society  is 
very  old  and  its  ritual  is  tinged  but  slightly  by  Christian  no 
tions.  The  whole  modus  operandi  is  saturated  with  religious 
feeling.  Under  no  circumstances  must  the  ceremonies  and 

27XLIII  J.  R.  (1656-1657),  271-273;  cf.  XLI  J.  R.  (1654-1656),  99; 
Parker,  u.  s.,  22-23. 

28  Parker,  62-63. 

29  Canfield,  155-158 ;  Mrs.  Smith,  78. 


88  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

secrets  of  the  society  be  revealed  to  the  uninitiated.  The  myth 
of  the  origin  of  the  medicine  related  many  weird  occurrences 
that  contributed  to  the  magic  efficacy  of  the  medicine.  A 
ritual  must  be  performed  at  meetings  in  the  dead  of  night  to 
acquire  and  preserve  unimpaired  the  power  of  the  medicine. 
The  medicine  alone  was  not  efficacious;  its  healing  power  de 
pended  upon  the  continued  performance  of  a  ritual.  The 
society,  as  &  member  relates,  was  "  instituted  primarily  to  pre 
serve  and  perform  the  ancient  rites  deemed  necessary  for  pre 
serving  the  potency  of  the  .  .  .  little  waters,  .  .  .  and  the 
method  of  its  administration."  The  administration  of  the 
medicine  necessitated  acts  that  are  recognized  as  religious. 
The  patient  must  be  purged.  He  must  eat  only  white  meat. 
The  house  must  be  rid  of  all  uncleanly  things,  uncleanly  ani 
mals  and  women  in  periodic  condition.  Now  the  medicine 
man  comes.  He  repeats  an  ancient  formula  and  casts  some 
tobacco  into  the  fire.  Then  he  is  given  a  cup  containing  water 
that  was  dipped  only  from  a  running  stream  and  with  the 
current.  He  drops  the  secret  medicine,  a  powder,  thrice  into 
the  water,  forming  a  triangle.  If  the  powder  floats  the  patient 
will  recover ;  if  it  clouds,  the  case  is  doubtful ;  but  if  it  sinks — 
he  dies.  If  it  should  happen  that  the  patient  is  wounded,  the 
medicine  is  sprinkled  on  the  wound  and  is  taken  internally. 
After  this,  the  doctor  sings  a  chant  and  the  matter  is  concluded 
with  a  feast  of  fruit.30 

RELIGION  AND  PERSONAL  MORALITY. 

Among  the  Iroquois  such  duties  as  truth-telling  and  respect 
for  the  life,  liberty  and  property  of  .others  were  not  universal 
obligations  but  held  only  for  members  of  the  group,  except 
where  treaties  guaranteed  a  wider  application  on  a  reciprocity 
basis.  The  very  name  "  Ongwe-honwe  "  which  was  applied  to 
themselves  by  the  Iroquois  signified  a  unique  people,  a  people 
who  were  apart  from  others,  a  people  who  had  obligations  one 
to  another  but  who  did  not  of  necessity  owe  them  to  strangers. 
It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  personal  ethics  among  the 
Iroquois  must  be  examined.  What  may  be  called  the  Iroquois 

so  Converse,  149-183,  discusses  secret  societies ;  cf.  Parker  in  Am. 
Anthr.,  n.  s.,  XI,  161-185;  also  Lafitau,  I,  373  and  Heckewelder,  ch. 
XXXI. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  89 

code  of  morality  has  been  stated  by  several  writers.  Canfield 
has  given  a  summary  for  the  nineteenth  century,  which,  when 
stripped  of  Christian  accretions,  may  be  taken  as  an  ideal 
statement  of  Iroquois  moral  rules,  ideal  because  violations  were 
known  among  them  even  as  they  are  among  us.  It  was  wrong 

"  To  neglect  the  old  in  any  manner,  or  to  refuse  to  share  with 
them  the  fruits  of  the  chase  or  the  products  of  the  fields,"  and  it  was 
especially  wrong-  "  to  neglect  or  disregard  aged  or  infirm  parents. 

"  To  speak  in  derision  or  slightingly  of  anyone  who  might  be  lame, 
blind,  idiotic,  insane — crippled  in  any  manner  or  unfortunate  in  any 
degree,  or  to  refuse  them  (sic)  aid  or  shelter. 

**  To  refuse  to  share  food  or  shelter  with  anyone  who  might  apply 
for  either,  or  to  fail  to  care  for  the  sick  and  for  orphan  children  and 
widows. 

"  To  break  any  treaty  or  agreement  made  at  the  council-fire  when 
the  peace-pipe  had  been  smoked,  or  after  parties  making  the  treaty 
had  partaken  of  food  together. 

"  To  violate  the  chastity  of  any  woman. 

"To  kill  animals  for  any  other  purpose  than  for  food  and  cover 
ing,  and  for  the  protection  of  growing  crops  and  human  life. 

"  To  tell  a  falsehood,  even  though  it  might  be  of  the  most  innocent 
character. 

"  To  show  cowardice  in  meeting  any  kind  of  danger  or  to  shrink 
from  exposure,  pain,  suffering,  sickness  or  death. 

"  To  take  human  life  unless  the  person  killed  was  a  member  of  a 
tribe  with  which  the  Iroquois  was  at  war."si 

The  Iroquois  have  been  characterized  frequently  as  more 
fierce  and  relentless  than  other  peoples;  as  more  revengeful 
and  as  rarely  forgetting  their  revenge;  as  more  uniformly 
merciless  and  cruel.32  The  Jesuits  said  not  simply  that  they 
would  do  all  they  could  for  the  Indians  but  that  they  would  do 
it  "in  spite  of  all  the  rage  of  hell,  and  the  cruelties  of  the 
Iroquois,  who  are  worse  than  the  demons  of  hell."  An  Iro 
quois  did  not  condemn  these  dispositions  in  a  warrior  so  long 
as  they  were  controlled  by  the  ideas  and  customs  of  the  tribe. 
They  were  part  of  the  warrior's  outfit  and  were  vented  only 
upon  strangers.  The  Iroquois  who  was  not  fierce,  cruel  and 
relentless  permitted  an  enemy  to  live  and  perhaps  thereby  en 
compassed  his  own  death;  for  the  interminable  Indian  wars 

si  172-173      Cf .  Loskiel,  Pt.  I,  13-18 ;  Stites,  144-146. 

32  Cf.  XXIV  J.  R.  (1642-1643),  ch.  XII.  Also  XXXIV  J.  R.  (1649), 
25-37;  XLIII  J.  R.  (1656-1657),  271.  A  full  account  of  the  treatment 
of  condemned  captives  is  given  in  XXXI  J.  R.  (1647),  ch.  IV. 


90  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

developed  these  dispositions  in  all  warriors.  The  only  re 
ligious  influence  connected  with  cruel  practices  was  the  exac 
tion  of  torture  and  sacrifice  by  Agreskoue. 

It  was  recognized  by  the  older  Iroquois  that  evil  conse 
quences  resulted  from  the  rash  conduct  of  loosely  controlled 
young  men.  Wars,  heart-burnings  and  other  troubles  came  in 
the  train  of  such  behavior.  Education  did  not  teach  self- 
control,  and  the  loose  government  together  writh  the  emphasis 
upon  the  warrior  ideal  constantly  led  young  men  to  make 
outbreaks.33 

Games  of  chance  were  enthrallingly  interesting  to  the  Iro 
quois.  In  fact  so  great  a  hold  did  some  games  have  that  they 
were  played  regularly  at  religious  festivals.  The  Great  Spirit 
himself,  as  announced  by  his  emissary  Handsome  Lake,  sanc 
tioned  some  of  these  ancient  games.  But  the  Iroquois  was  so 
enamored  of  the  game  that  often  he  staked  his  all,  the  loss  of 
which  brought  hardship  upon  him  and  his.34 

In  a  letter35  written  in  January  of  1668,  Father  Bruyas  re 
lated  what  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  vices  of  the  Iroquois.  As 
a  cultivated  Frenchman  he  found  only  four,  namely,  lust  for 
war,  drunkenness,  dreams  and  inchastity.  "  I  have  not  ob 
served,"  he  continued,  "  any  other  vices  in  our  Iroquois.  They 
do  not  know  what  Cursing  is.36  I  have  never  seen  them  be 
come  angry,  even  On  occasions  when  our  frenchmen  would  have 
uttered  a  hundred  oaths,  ...  As  they  live  only  from  Day  to 
Day,  they  do  not  desire  much;  and  all  their  wishes  end  in 
having  something  to  eat.  .  .  .  For  my  part,  I  compare  them  to 
our  peasants  in  France,  and  I  do  not  think  that  they  are  more 
intelligent.  .  .  ,"37  Morgan,  writing  almost  two  hundred 

as  XXXI  J.  R.  (1647),  ch.  V,  87;  XLIII  J.  R.  (1656-1657),  101,  103, 
115,  137,  215. 

34  On  games  among-  the  Iroquois  see 

Hewitt:  "  Iroquois  Game  of  La  Crosse,"  Am.  Anthr.,  V,  189-191. 
Hough,  W. :  "  Seneca  Snow  Snake  Game,"  Am.  Anthr.,  I,  134. 
Parker:  "Snow  Snake  Game,"  Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.,  XI,  250-256. 

A  general  discussion  of  Iroquois  games  is  given  by  Morgan,  I,  bk. 
ii,  ch.  V. 

A  complete  discussion  of  Indian  games  is  given  by  Culin,  S. :  Games 
of  the  North  American  Indian,  Bur.  Am.  Ethn.,  Rep.,  XXIV,  3-809 
(1902-1903). 

as  LI  J.  R.  (1666-1668),  137  sq. 

se  Cf.  Loskiel,  Pt.  I,  14. 

37  Cf.  t&.,  13. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  91 

years  later,  also  gave  a  favorable  summary.38  He  noted  that 
among  the  Iroquois  crimes  were  so  infrequent  that  no  special 
machinery  was  needed.  The  Iroquois  regarded  theft  from  a 
tribesman  as  wrong,  but  thieves  hardly  were  known  among 
themselves.  The  Iroquois  doors  never  were  locked.  Murder 
of  a  tribesman  was  a  crime  for  which  the  criminal  paid  with 
his  own  life,  if  the  matter  could  not  be  adjusted  with  the 
injured  kin  by  means  of  composition.  Adultery  was  a  crime 
for  which  the  erring  wife  was  whipped.  Witchcraft  was 
criminal  and  witches  were  put  to  death.  Dissimulation  was  not 
and  Iroquois  habit.  In  1742,  in  point  of  time  midway  between 
Bruyas  and  Morgan,  Canassatego  said,  "  The  Indians  know  no 
Punishment  but  Death ;  they  have  no  such  Thing  as  pecuniary 
Mulcts;  if  a  Man  be  guilty  of  a  Crime,  he  is  either  put  to 
Death,  or  the  Fault  is  overlook'd."39  In  the  Deganawida  Myth 
is  the  command  that  a  sachem  should  be  deposed  without  warn 
ing  if  found  guilty  of  murder,  rape  or  theft.40 

An  Iroquois  appreciated  goodness  of  heart  and  justice;  he 
treated  peaceable  strangers  well;  he  relieved  the  afflicted,  the 
sick  and  the  poor;  and  he  was  sympathetic,  respectful,  gener 
ous,  honest,  grateful,  faithful,  industrious,  patient,  brave,  dar 
ing  and  possessed  of  fortitude.  Of  course  these  dispositions 
were  developed  in  his  own  way  and  according  to  his  own  cus 
toms  and  notions.  Some  of  these  attractive  traits  have  been 
illustrated.  A  few  additional  examples  will  give  body  to  the 
above  enumeration. 

One  indication  of  the  care  given  the  sick  is  the  following 
custom.  If,  among  the  group  of  women  who  worked  the- 
fields,  there  were  some  who  were  ill  or  otherwise  incapacitated, 
help  was  given  them  in  the  performance  of  their  work.  Such 
aid  was  given  freely.  It  was  not  given  as  charity  but  as  a 
right  and  was  performed  as  a  duty.41 

When  in  1690  the  French  surprised  the  inhabitants  of 
Schenectady,  the  Mohawk  sachems  came  to  Albany  to  condole 
with  their  friends.  One  of  the  sachems  spoke  thus : 

ss  I,  321-326. 

39  Statement  made  before  a  council  held  July  9.     Quoted  by  Golden, 

II,  95. 

40  Scott,  231 ;  cf.  Parker :  Constitution,  34-36. 

41  Parker :  Maize,  32. 


92  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

"Brethren,  the  Murder  of  our  Brethren  at  Schenectady  by  the 
French  grieves  us  as  much,  as  if  it  had  been  done  to  our  selves,  for 
we  are  in  the  same  Chain  (i.  e.,  are  friends).  ...  Be  not  therefore 
discouraged.  We  give  this  Belt  to  wipe  away  your  Tears. 

"  Brethren,  we  lament  the  Death  of  so  many  of  our  Brethren,  whose 
Blood  has  been  shed  at  Schenectady.  .  .  .  But  now  we  gather  up  our 
Dead,  to  bury  them,  by  this  second  Belt. 

"  Great  and  sudden  is  the  Mischief,  as  if  it  had  fallen  from  Heaven 
upon  us.  Our  Forefathers  taught  us  to  go  with  all  Speed  to  bemoan 
and  lament  with  our  Brethren,  when  any  Disaster  or  Misfortune 
happens  to  any.  .  .  . 

"  Brethren  be  patient,  this  Disaster  is  an  Affliction  with  has  fallen 
from  Heaven  upon  us.  The  Sun,  which  hath  been  cloudy,  and  sent  this 
Disaster,  will  shine  again  with  its  pleasant  Beams.  Take  Courage. 
.  .  ."*2 

A  less  formal  expression  of  the  sense  of  loss  was  couched  in 
the  words  of  a  sachem  irritated  by  Sir  William  Johnson  who 
was  pressing  the  Iroquois  for  aid  in  King  George's  War  just  at 
a  time  when  small-pox  was  raging  among  them.  "  You  seem 
to  think  that  we  are  Brutes,  that  we  have  no  Sense  of  the  Loss 
of  our  dearest  Relations,  and  some  of  them  the  bravest  Men 
we  had  in  our  Nation :  You  must  allow  us  Time  to  bewail  our 
Misfortune."43 

Canassatego,  speaking  at  a  great  council  held  in  the  summer 
of  1742,  exhibited  rare  fineness  of  feeling  when  in  the  course 
of  his  speech  he  craved  pardon  for  the  Iroquois'  uncleanliness 
and  offered  recompense  in  the  form  of  presents  for  having  in 
convenienced  the  white  people.44  On  the  same  occasion  he 
gave  evidence  that  the  Iroquois  appreciated  the  efforts  made 
in  their  behalf.  Conrad  Weiser  had  acted  as  an  interpreter 
and  they  were  grateful  therefor.  "  He  has  had  a  great  deal 
of  trouble  with  us,  wore  out  his  Shoes  in  our  Messages,  and 
dirty'd  his  Clothes  by  being  amongst  us,  so  that  he  is  become 
as  nasty  as  an  Indian.  In  return  for  these  Services,  we  recom 
mend  him  to  your  Generosity ;  and  on  our  own  Behalf,  we  give 
him  Five  Skins  to  buy  him  Clothes  and  Shoes  with."45 
Another  instance  of  such  feeling  is  the  following.  A  nephew 

«  Golden,  I,  142-145. 
43Beauchamp:  History,  287. 
**Colden,  II,  110. 
«/&.,  111. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  93 

of  Conrad  Weiser  had  shot  the  son  of  Seneca  George.  At  a 
council  Frederick,  son  of  Conrad,  endeavored  to  soothe  the 
old  man.  Seneca  George  was  much  affected  by  Frederick's 
words  and  replied,  "  He  was  all  the  Child  I  had ;  and  now  I 
am  old,  the  loss  of  him  hath  almost  entirely  cut  away  my 
Heart,  but  I  am  yet  pleased  my  Brother  Weiser,  the  Son  of 
my  old  Friend,  has  taken  this  Method  to  dry  my  Tears."46 

That  the  Iroquois  ever  should  have  loved  peace  seems  in 
compatible  with  their  warlike  proclivities.  The  older  folks, 
however,  found  war  to  be  not  so  desirable.  When  a  peace  was 
made  with  the  French  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury  the  following  eulogy  was  delivered  as  a  song  of  welcome 
to  the  ambassadors. 

"  Oh  the  beautiful  land,  the  beautiful  land, 
That  the  French  are  to  occupy ! 

"  Good  news,  very  good  news ; 

In  very  truth,  my  brother,  in  very  truth,  we  are  speaking  together ; 

In  very  truth,  we  have  a  message  from  heaven. 

"  My  brother  I  salute  thee  ; 

My  brother,  be  welcome. 

Ai,  ai,  ai,  hi. 

O  the  beautiful  voice,  O  the  beautiful  voice  that  thou  hast. 

Ai,  ai,  ai,  hi. 

O  the  beautiful  voice,  O  the  beautiful  voice,  that  I  have ! 

Ai,  ai,  ai,  hi. 

"  My  brother  I  salute  thee ; 

Again  I  salute  thee. 

In  all  sincerity  and  without  simulation,  I  accept  the  heaven  that 

thou  has  shown  me ; 
Yes,  I  approve  it,  I  accept  it. 

"  Farewell,  war ;  farewell,  hatchet ! 
We  have  been  fools  till  now; 
But  in  the  future  we  will  be  brothers. 
Yes,  we  will  really  be  brothers. 

"  To-day  the  great  peace  is  made. 

Farewell,  war ;  Farewell,  arms ! 

For  the  affair  is  entirely  beautiful. 

Thou  upholdest  our  Cabins,  when  thou  comest  among  us."** 

•*o  Beauchamp,  loc.  cit.,  335. 
4TXLII  J.  R-   (1655-1656),  115-117. 


94  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

Ambassadors  and  also  ordinary  strangers  in  times  of  peace 
were  received  with  exclamations  of  pleasure  and  with  gifts.48 
Messengers  themselves  were  inviolable.  It  may  be  that  once 
upon  a  time  such  emissaries,  strangers,  were  under  the  care  of 
some  divine  power.  For  Heckewelder,  speaking  of  later  times, 
said,  "  It  was  with  them  a  point  of  religious  belief,  that  pacific 
messengers  were  under  the  special  protection  of  the  Great 
Spirit,  that  it  was  unlawful  to  molest  them,  and  that  the 
nation  which  should  be  guilty  of  so  enormous  a  crime  would 
surely  be  punished  by  being  unsuccessful  in  war,  and  perhaps, 
by  suffering  a  total  defeat."49  It  was  a  matter  of  pride  with 
the  Iroquois  that  solemn  obligations  were  kept.  Morgan  and 
others  testify  that  "To  the  faith  of  treaties  the  Iroquois  ad 
hered  with  unwavering  fidelity."50 

Golden  relates  that 

"  The  Five  Nations  think  themselves  by  Nature  superior  to  the  rest 
of  Mankind,  and  call  themselves  Ongwe-honwe ;  that  is,  Men  surpass 
ing  all  others.  This  Opinion,  which  they  take  Care  to  cultivate  into 
their  Children,si  gives  them  that  Courage,  "which  has  been  so  terrible 
to  all  the  Nations  of  North  America ;  and  they  have  taken  such  Care 
to  impress  the  same  Opinion  of  their  People  on  all  their  Neighbours, 
that  they,  on  all  Occasions,  yield  the  most  submissive  Obedience  to 
them.  .  .  .  An  old  Mohawk  Sachem,  in  a  poor  Blanket  and  a  dirty 
Shirt,  may  be  seen  issuing  his  Orders  with  as  arbitrary  an  Authority, 
as  a  Roman  Dictator.  It  is  not  for  the  Sake  of  Tribute  however,  that 
they  make  War,  but  from  the  Notions  of  Glory,  which  they  have  ever 
most  strongly  imprinted  on  their  Minds.  .  .  ."52 

It  should  be  noted  that  such  bravery  was  due  largely,  as 
Golden  says,  to  social  fostering.  Scores  of  captives  were 
adopted  by  the  Iroquois  and  many  acquired  the  full  rights  of 
an  Iroquois.  Many  a  brave  Iroquois  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  who  drove  fear  into  Huron  hearts  was  himself  a  lineal 
descendant  of  a  captive  Huron  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  Iroquois  were  a  composite  people.  They  were  brave 

48  Cf.  XLI  J.  R.  (1654-1656),  99  and  Beauchamp,  loc.  cit.,  213. 
4»  182.     Cf.  La  Hontan,  II,  509  and  note, 
col,  327. 

61  Cf.  Converse,  54-56.     Hewitt  denies  that  the  term  implies  super 
iority.     Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.,  XIX,  433. 

62  Colden,  I,  pp.  xvii-xix ;  cf .  Heckewelder,  ch.  XVIII. 


IROQUOIS  MORALITY.  95 

largely  because  their  traditions  made  them  so.53     Religious 
belief  had  no  part  in  the  development  of  this  disposition. 

SUMMARY  OF  THE  LARGER  RELATIONS  OF  RELIGION  AND  MORALS 
AMONG  THE  IROQUOIS. 

From  the  standpoint  of  ethics,  as  defined  for  the  Iroquois, 
the  moral  was  an  attribute  of  their  religion.  From  the  stand 
point  of  religion  two  major  facts  concerning  the  relation  of  it 
to  their  morals,  were  prominent.  Before  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  the  Iroquois  religion  had  slight  connection  with  their 
virtues  and  vices.  In  those  instances  in  which  a  connection 
was  observed  it  was  traceable  either  to  the  preaching  of  mis 
sionaries  and  of  Handsome  Lake  or  to  the  fact  that  the  given 
disposition  was  called  forth  by  some  customary  practice,  some 
institution,  that  was  affected  by  religion  in  ways  described. 
But  Iroquois  virtues  and  vices  were  to  be  accounted  for  more 
fully  by  their  entire  social  and  physical  environment  rather 
than  by  the  religious  portion  of  it.  On  the  other  hand  in 
stituted  practices,  especially  those  connected  with  the  un 
common  and  the  uncomprehended  rather  than  with  the  trite, 
with  the  attractive  and  the  thrilling  rather  than  with  the 
matter  of  fact,  were  explicable  to  the  native  or  had  their 
requirements  sanctioned  and  their  value  enhanced  largely  by 
religious  beliefs  and  practices  or  the  attitude  implied  by  them. 

The  second  great  fact  is  the  influence  of  Christianity.  Mis 
sionary  teaching  effected  some  notable  changes  in  the  pagan 
religion.  Since  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  days  of  Hand 
some  Lake  contact  with  Europeans  gave  the  Iroquois  a  central 
and  all  important  deity,  helped  to  do  away  with  a  few  beliefs 
and  practices  and  partially  clarified  Iroquois  ideas  as  to  re 
ligious  observance  and  personal  morality.  By  means  of  the 
veneration  for  the  Great  Spirit  and  the  power  of  Handsome 
Lake's  preaching,  Christianity  increased  the  sense  of  the  obli 
gation  to  be  personally  virtuous  and  placed  an  additional 
religious  sanction  back  of  institutions.  Since  the  last  decade 
or  two  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  teachings  of  Handsome 

53  On  the  constant  infusion  of  foreign  blood  see  Bacqueville,  III, 
43-44;  Parker:  Constitution,  10;  Jesuit  Relations  passim,  particularly 
XLIII  J.  R.  (1656-1657),  ch.  XII  or  the  summary  of  the  Relations  in 
Donohoe. 


96  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

Lake  which  summed  up  the  many  years  of  White  influences, 
the  Iroquois  enforced  peacefulness  and  their  loss  of  the  hitherto 
normal,  manly  occupations  because  of  the  decline  of  warfare 
and  hunting,  and  the  astonishing  increases  in  White  popula 
tion,  have  been  three  important  factors  in  standardizing 
religious  observance,  in  producing  economic  influences  observ 
able  during  the  festivals  and  in  making  the  great,  sacred  feasts 
regularly  recurring  celebrations  that  could  not  fail  further 
to  dignify  Iroquois  religion.  Additional  comment  upon  these 
facts  will  be  made  in  the  course  of  the  concluding,  general 
discussion. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CONCLUSION. 

Now  it  is  possible  critically  to  examine  the  generally  ac 
cepted  view  of  the  relation  of  religion  to  morality.  The  fre 
quently  recurring  statement  that  the  religious  beliefs  and 
practices  of  savages  had  slight  bearing  upon  their  morals, 
needs  revision.1  Writes  in  making  that  remark  have  been 
thinking  of  morality  in  terms  chiefly  of  the  virtues  and  vices 
of  agents.  They  have  given  slight  consideration  to  the  moral 
ity  of  institutions,2  except  when  some  virtue  or  vice  happened 
to  depend  upon  customary  practices.  Their  discussions  have 
been  handicapped  seriously  because  the  field  has  been  nar 
rowed,  and  the  more  subtle  and  important  relations  of  religion 
and  ethics  have  not  come  into  view.  The  sphere  of  morality 
includes  not  only  the  obligations  of  agents  but  also  the 
morality  of  institutions,  that  is,  of  standardized  behavior. 
From  this  viewpoint  it  has  become  clear  that  in  uncivilized 
societies,  in  which  the  social  constitution  had  comparatively 

1  Cf .   Introduction,   Ch.   I,   above;   also  Morgan,   II    (note   62),   234, 
and  Stites,  144. 

2  Students  of  religion  usually  have  restricted  the  sphere  of  morality 
to  personal  ethics,  while  students   of  ethics  usually  have  taken  too 
narrow  a  view  of  religion.     Hobhouse  furnishes  an  excellent  illustra 
tion.     His  "Morals  in  Evolution"  has  been  of  great  value.     But  he 
chose  to  define  religion  in  Tyler's  terms,  a  definition  no  longer  ac 
ceptable,  and  he  overlooked  the  importance  of  religion  for  the  moral 
sphere  as  an  evaluating  agency.     Although  he  was  aware  of  the  in 
fluence  of  taboos  as  a  sanction  for  conduct,  he  regarded  the  spirits 
that  punished  those  who  broke  taboos  as  unmoral  essentially.     More 
over,  despite  his  broad  view  of  morality,  he  did  not  resist  a  tendency 
to  view  the  morals  of  savages  according  to  current  European  notions 
of  ethical  obligation.     This  weakness,  together  with  his  conception  of 
the  religion  of  savages  in  terms  of  beliefs  and  practices  connected  with 
spirits,  rendered  him  incapable  of  seeing  clearly  the  morality  of  in 
stitutions  among  savages.     Finally,  although  most  of  their  forms  of 
behavior  were   standardized  rather  than  merely  personal,   individual 
acts,   he    failed   to   grasp   the    importance   of   the   moral   function   of 
religion  in  savage  institutions,  namely  that  of  evaluation  and  sanction. 

97 


98  IROQUOIS  EELIGION. 

little  differentiation,  religion  to  some  extent  and  in  some  way 
functioned  in  all  the  major  and  in  those  minor  institutions 
that  demanded  attention,3  whereas  on  the  whole  it  functioned 

sDurkheim  was  familiar  with  these  subtle  functions  of  religion. 
His  "  Elementary  Forms  of  the  Religious  Life  "  was  the  ripe  product  of 
a  noted  French  sociological  school  and  had  the  advantage  of  intimate 
acquaintance  with  a  wide  field.  His  very  fitness  for  his  task  has 
emphasized  the  greatest  handicap  under  which  investigators  now  labor. 
However  deep  was  his  knowledge  of  the  Australians  and  other  peoples, 
his  acquaintance  with  the  Iroquois  was  not  intimate.  He  referred 
mainly  to  a  few  general  works  on  Indians  and  to  those  by  School- 
craft  and  by  Morgan.  He  nowhere  questioned  Schoolcraft's  unre 
liable  statements.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  many  of  his 
generalizations  have  been  inapplicable  to  the  Iroquois.  He  asserted, 
for  example,  that  religion  and  morality  are  identical.  The  student 
of  the  Iroquois,  however,  has  not  felt  satisfied  with  an  explanation 

•  of  their  personal  morality  solely  in  terms  of  their  religion.  Too  many 
other  considerations  of  tradition,  warfare,  social  and  physical  en 
vironment,  and  personal  influence  such  as  that  of  Handsome  Lake, 
have  made  it  desirable  to  seek  additional  explanations.  Durkheim's 
premise  makes  impossible  any  such  discussion  of  the  morality  of 
savages  as  has  been  given  in  this  paper.  Likewise,  his  lengthy  argu 
ment  concerning  totemism,  not  only  as  the  most  primitive  religion 
but  also  as  the  religion  of  the  clan,  has  found  no  approving  echo  in 
the  facts  of  Iroquois  life.  Although  they  had  a  definite  clan  system 
their  religion  historically  has  been  divorced  from  totemic  notions. 
Moreover,  it  is  not  true  for  the  Iroquois  that  the  members  of  a  clan 
have  been  united  mainly  by  religious  bonds.  The  Iroquois  in  his 
torical  times  appear  to  have  viewed  the  clan  tie  secularly.  They  did 
not  hesitate  consciously  to  adopt  into  a  clan  some  captive  or  some 
white  man  who  rendered  them  great  service.  Furthermore,  most  re 
ligious  rites  were  tribal,  usually  under  phratric  directions,  and  were 
not  distinctly  clan  functions.  In  fact  there  is  no  conclusive  evidence 
that  among  the  Iroquois  the  totem  ever  had  any  religious  function. 
Durkheim  has  said  that  the  totem  also  was  the  source  of  the  moral 
life  of  the  clan.  Too  much  has  been  learned  regarding  other  Iro 
quois  institutions  for  that  assertion  to  be  accepted.  Their  virtues  and 
vices,  for  instance,  have  been  explained  more  satisfactorily  without 
the  use  of  totemic  notions.  Indeed,  although  the  Iroquois  had  a 
definite  clan  system,  the  totem  and  notions  concerning  it  in  his 
torical  times  have  had  very  slight  moral  influence.  The  clan  figures 

'  in  the  organization  of  the  League,  yet  neither  the  Deganawida  Myth 
nor  the  actual  structure  of  the  Confederation  shows  that  totem  no 
tions  functioned  in  that  institution.  Such  facts  as  these  have  made 
many  of  Durkheim's  generalizations  concerning  the  play  of  the  totem 
in  the  religion  and  morals  of  peoples  with  clan  organization  inap 
plicable  to  the  Iroquois.  Nor  has  there  been  greater  success  in  apply- 


CONCLUSION.  99 

only  indirectly  and  slightly  in  personal  morality.  The  study 
of  the  Iroquois  has  shown  that  their  religious  beliefs  and  prac 
tices  before  the  days  of  Handsome  Lake  had  slight  and  inci-  - 
dental  influence  upon  their  personal  ethics.  An  Iroquois  was 
kind  or  cruel,  hospitable  or  unfriendly,  grateful  or  ungrate 
ful,  truthful  or  untruthful,  honest  or  dishonest,  revengeful  or 
forgiving,  not  especially  because  religion  commanded  such 
conduct  but  rather  he  was  such  according  as  these  universal 
human  traits  happened  to  be  developed  in  him;  such  develop 
ment  depended  chiefly  upon  heredity,  upon  education  as  de 
scribed,  upon  the  demands  of  savage  life,  and  upon  the  ordi 
nary  social  rules  and  traditions  which  governed  a  relatively 
small  group  of  people  and  which  of  course  were  in  part  re 
ligious.  On  the  other  hand,  this  study  has  shown  that  their 
religion  had  marked  and  direct  influence  upon  standardized 
behavior.  A  few  institutions  such  as  marriage,  hospitality  and 
property  ownership,  which  lacked  attention-compelling  quali 
ties,  had  slight  religious  influences  working  in  them ;  but  those 
institutions  which  occupied  so  much  of  the  Iroquois'  attention, 
such  as  the  political  and  particularly  the  economic,  had  re 
ligious  elements  in  their  very  structure  and  w^ere  consecrated 

ing  to  them  his  dictum  that  the  morality  of  religion  consisted  in  the 
fact  that  religious  forces  were  the  impressions  of  society  upon  its 
members,  society  apparently  being  the  mass  of  living  persons  in  the 
community.  Among  the  Iroquois  the  moral  authority  of  the  Great 
Spirit,  for  example,  has  been  traced  primarily  to  the  teachings  of 
foreign,  white  men  and  of  Handsome  Lake.  That  a  boy  performed 
certain  initiation  rites,  an  individualistic  ceremony  in  many  ways, 
appeared  to  have  been  due  perhaps  as  much  to  such  forces  as  personal 
ambition  and  his  knowledge  of  tradition  and  custom,  as  to  the  im 
pressions  made  upon  him  at  puberty  by  the  living  group.  In  short, 
many  facts  among  the  Iroquois  one  has  preferred  to  explain  as  much 
by  means  of  their  history,  their  culture,  their  traditions  or  their 
great  men,  as  by  the  exertion  of  the  social  pressure  of  the  given 
group. 

Durkheim's  study  illustrates  the  pitfalls  and  handicaps  that  con 
tinue  to  confront  those  who  generalize  concerning  the  relation  of 
religion  and  morals  among  many  peoples.  The  application  of  the 
results  of  so  fine  a  study  as  that  made  by  Durkheim  or  by  Hobhouse 
reveals  strikingly  the  crying  need,  on  the  part  of  students  of  the 
problem,  for  a  series  of  studies  of  the  relations  of  religion  and  morals 
in  each  of  the  many  known  groups  of  peoples,  both  of  the  present 
and  of  the  past. 


100  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

by  the  religious  attitude.  It  is  not  true  for  the  Iroquois,  there 
fore,  that  the  religion  of  savages  has  slight  bearing  upon  their 
morals.  Their  religion  was  connected  definitely  with  insti 
tuted  practices,  sometimes  in  the  form  of  a  taboo  or  of  a  myth 
that  gave  an  explanation  other  than  a  worldly  one,  and  usually 
as  a  positive  sanction  or  obligation  to  perform  some  act  and 
as  an  evaluating  agency.  Among  the  Iroquois  the  chief  role 
of  religion  in  the  moral  sphere  was  that  of  a  valuating  and 
sanctioning  force.  Moreover,  this  function  of  religion  effected 
itself  in  the  moral  sphere  more  powerfully  than  did  any  other 
sanctioning  or  evaluating  agency.  Reflection  upon  the  cir 
cumstances  of  their  life  makes  apparent  why  their  religion 
played  such  a  part  in  morality.  The  Iroquois  cultural  out 
look,  their  knowledge  of  the  physical  world  in  which  they 
lived,  and  their  life  from  day  to  day,  both  precluded  the  use 
on  many  occasions  of  sanctions  and  valuational  standards  that 
function  among  us  and  made  effective  religious  forces  in  what 
we  call  non-religious  activities.4  In  a  really  incomprehensible 
manner  and  respite  his  best  personal  efforts,  the  savage  was 
disappointed  in  so  many  important  desires  and  found  so  many 
crises  to  be  truly  fateful.  An  enemy  might  prove  to  be  physi 
cally  stronger,  the  seed  might  not  grow,  the  boy  may  be  an 
unsuccessful  man,  or  the  hunt  may  be  fruitless.  Under  such 
circumstances  and  because  of  his  outlook  upon  and  the  con 
ditions  of  his  life,  the  Iroquois  had  in  religion  his  best  instru 
ment  of  control.  One  recalls  how  even  their  "  face-to-face " 
relations,  their  marriage  and  property  arrangements,  and  some 
other  forms  of  behavior  which  normally  happened  not  to 
attract  attention  or  to  be  dangerous,  under  certain  circum 
stances  did  become  affected  by  religious  influences.  To  insure 
{  wifely  continence,  for  example,  much  to  be  desired  but  uncer- 
,  tain  when  one  was  off  on  a  hunt  or  on  the  war-path,  a  quasi- 
1  religious  sanction  was  imposed.  Would  not  her  misconduct 
!  in  some  mysterious  way  inevitably  bring  untold  peril  upon  her 
husband  ?  When,  as  in  this  case,  a  contingency  has  arisen  that 
otherwise  could  not  be  guarded  against,  or  when  there  has  been 
encountered  some  religious  element  like  the  dead  in  the  Con 
dolence,  the  supernatural  in  the  dream,  or  the  incomprehensible 
power  of  the  "  little  waters  "  in  healing,  religion  is  found  to  be 

<  Cf.  Ch.  IV  above. 


CONCLUSION.  101 

connected  with  the  institution  as  an  integral  element  or  rite, 
or  as  a  taboo  or  sanction,  or  because  of  a  value-giving  sacred 
myth.  All  such  matters  certainly  demanded  attention.  Their 
uncomprehended  elements  raised  doubts,  hinted  at  dangers, 
made  success  uncertain  and  stirred  up  many  emotions.  One 
turned  naturally  to  the  spirits  who  were  able  to  help.  The 
religious  became  the  most  important  sanction  in  life. 

The  fundamental  effect  of  missionary  influence  upon  the 
Iroquois  was  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of  the  religious  sanction 
behind  behavior.  It  will  be  recalled  that  the  introduction  of 
Christianity,  on  the  one  hand,  affected  but  superficially  the 
religious  influences  already  operating  in  or  upon  institutions. 
Some  religious  practices,  such  as  the  worship  of  Agreskoue, 
disappeared;  additional  beliefs,  like  that  in  the  Great  Spirit 
and  in  "heaven  above,"  were  accepted.  Some  myths  were 
affected.  The  Creation  Myth  set  forth  a  duality  of  good  and 
evil  that  was  Christian ;  the  explanation  of  the  founding  of  the 
League  as  given  in  the  Deganawida  Myth  was  subject  to  the 
influence  of  Christology.  A  few  minor  institutions  became 
sanctioned  by  religion.  For  instance,  customary  ways  of  edu 
cating  children  came  to  be  approved  by  the  Great  Spirit.  But 
the  old  views  persisted.  Fundamentally,  religious  practices 
and  the  religious  attitude  manifested  in  institutional  life  were 
not  modified.5  The  Christian  Church  and  the  cultured  Euro 
peans'  conceptions  both  of  it  and  of  its  relations  to  man  and  to 
God  were  simply  not  comprehensible  to  an  untutored  Iroquois. 
They  were  foreign  cultural  elements.  But  contact  with  Chris 
tian  teaching,  on  the  other  hand,  did  affect  fundamentally  the 
forms  of  approval  of  virtues  and  of  disapproval  of  vices.  One 
remembers  that  the  Jesuits,  civilized  religious  teachers,  laid 
great  stress  upon  personal  chastity,  kindness  and  other  virtues. 
That  emphasis  never  was  made  so  sharply  by  the  Iroquois, 
because  they  were  not  so  individualistic  as  the  cultured  mis 
sionaries.  The  former  tended  to  act  more  similarly,  that  is, 
their  behavior  was  more  standardized  or  institutionalized.  At 
those  times  and  upon  those  occasions  when  some  important 
action  had  to  be  performed  and  performed  rightly,  Iroquois 
behavior  was  ceremonial,  the  manner  of  acting  being  pre 
scribed  by  religion  which  furnished  the  most  important  sanc- 

6  See  Chs.  Ill,  IV,  above. 


102  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

tion.  On  such  occasions  a  savage  would  say,  as  it  were,  that 
the  god  commands  one  to  do  thus,  in  much  the  same  way  that 
an  Englishman  urges  conduct  befitting  a  gentleman,  or  a 
Prussian  expects  conduct  proper  to  a  soldier,  or  an  American 
remarks,  "  Act  like  a  man."  The  Iroquois,  already  possessing 
gods  and  minor  deities  closely  related  to  himself,  could  assimi 
late  the  notion  that  his  kindness  or  respect  or  veracity  was 
demanded  by  his  gods.  It  was  not  altogether  a  foreign  notion 
to  him.  It  was  an  old  one  clarified  and  emphasized.  Virtues 
and  vices  therefore  could  be  and  did  become  sanctioned  or  dis 
approved  by  religion.  The  crystallization  of  this  influence 
came  through  Handsome  Lake  and  his  emphasis  upon  the 
character  and  the  role  of  the  Great  Spirit.  The  results  of 
missionary  teaching  as  embodied  in  the  career  of  Handsome 
Lake  are  truly  remarkable.6  Because  of  his  work  and  that  of 
the  missionaries,  the  Iroquois  in  the  nineteenth  century  present 
the  rare  spectacle  of  a  savage  people  who  name  their  virtues 
and  vices  and  their  duties  one  to  another,  who  consciously 
regard  them  as  sanctioned  or  forbidden  by  their  greatest  god, 
and  who  make  it  the  duty  of  their  religious  officials,  the 
Keepers  of  the  Faith,  regularly  to  remind  the  people  of  their 
moral  obligations. 

According  to  his  preaching,  the  missionary  believed  not 
only  that  the  chief  function  of  religion  in  the  moral  sphere 
was  to  sanction  personal  ethics,  but  also  that  religion  was  the 
most  important  sanction  for  individual  conduct.  Among  the 
Iroquois,  religion  rarely  influenced  individual  behavior  di 
rectly,  but  was  the  chief  sanction  that  underlay  standardized 
behavior,  institutions.  Missionary  effort  among  the  Iroquois 
makes  this  contrast  vivid  and  provokes  reflection.  Appar 
ently,  while  increasing  complexity  and  specialization  of  human 
activities  had  developed  in  the  Old  World,  religion  had  come 
to  be  regarded  more  and  more  as  simply  one  element  in  society. 
Religion  had  come  to  exist  alongside  of  business  and  politics. 
The  priest  had  taken  a  place  alongside  the  statesman,  the 
soldier  and  the  merchant.  It  does  seem  that  as  such  changes 
occurred,  that  religion  remained  fresh  and  grew  which,  as 
society  became  more  complex  and  individuation  increased, 
shifted  it  emphasis  from  the  divine  in  institutions  to  him  who 

.   •  See  above,  pp.  59  sq.,  85. 


CONCLUSION.  103 

performed  the  act.  In  other  words,  with  such  changes,  with 
increasing  knowledge,  and  with  the  increasing  importance  _of 
other  interests,  came  the  narrowing  of  the  role  of  religion  as  a 
sanction  more  definitely  to  the  strictly  religious  and  to  personal 
ethics,  while  the  other  interests  and  new  knowledge  furnished 
other  powerful  sanctioning  and  valuational  forces.  This  shift 
has  been  becoming  increasingly  clear.  In  very  recent  times  the 
emancipation  of  secular  institutions  from  religion  and  its 
sanction  has  become  almost  complete.  Another  change  ap 
pears  to  be  taking  place,  for  there  now  can  be  detected  a  new 
viewpoint  toward  the  religious  sanction  that  for  so  long  under 
lay  personal  ethics.  The  Intellectual  Revolution  that  began 
more  than  two  centuries  ago  has  been  the  largest  factor  in 
effecting  this  change.  There  have  resulted  new  notions  of 
spiritual  personality  which  only  effects  and  unfolds  itself  in 
and  through  the  group.  Ethical  obligation,  so  envisaged,  is 
becoming  so  binding  that  it  is  tending  entirely  to  furnish  the 
sanctions  for  conduct.  Thus  the  old  relation  between  religion 
and  ethics  among  civilized  peoples  is  breaking  down.  In  fact 
some  persons  aver  that  religion  is  being  divorced  from  ethics. 
But  it  seems  that,  in  reality,  a  restatement  of  the  relation  is 
being  made.  So  powerful  are  notions  of  ethical  obligation 
becoming,  so  vital  a  sanctioning  and  evaluating  agency  for  the 
development  of  what  is  being  called  spiritual  personality  are 
they  growing  to  be,  that  even  now  religion  is  being  defined 
from  the  viewpoint  of  ethics,  while  notions  of  ethical  obliga 
tion  are  furnishing  a  sanction  for  religious  conduct !  Religious 
emotions,  beliefs  and  practices  are  being  molded  by  the  results 
of  ethical  experience  and  are  being  used  actively  to  aid  the 
development,  enlargement  and  realization  of  the  ends  set  up  by 
that  experience.7 

7  Cf.  Felix  Adler :  An  Ethical  Philosophy  of  Life.    Appleton's,  New 
York  and  London,  1918. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Those  books  and  articles  referred  to  in  the  text  that  do  not 
have  direct  bearing  upon  the  Iroquois  are  not  included  here. 

An  asterisk  indicates  material  that  has  been  found  to  be  of 
marked  value. 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES.  . 

There  is  no  complete  bibliography. 

Beauchamp,  W.  M.:   History  of  the  New  York  Iroquois,  pp.   128-130. 

N.  Y.  State  Museum  Bull.  78.     (Albany,  1905.) 
Parker,  A,  C.:  Iroquois  Uses  of  Maize  and  Other  Food  Plants,  pp.  110- 

113.    N.  Y.  S.  M.  Bull.  144.     (Albany,  1910.) 
Pilling,  J.  O.:   'Bibliography  of  the  Iroquois  Language.     Bur.   Ethn. 

Bull.  6.     (Washington,  1888.) 
Stites,  Sara  H.:  Economics  of  the  Iroquois,  pp.  157-159.     Bryn  Mawr 

College  Monograph  Ser.  I,  no.  3.     (Bryn  Mawr,  1905.) 

BOOKS  AND   ARTICLES. 

De  Bacqueville  de  La  Potherie:  Histoire  de  1'Amerique  Septentrionale, 
4  vols.  (Paris,  1753.)  Gives  a  visitor's  account  of  a  trip  along 
our  eastern  coast,  beginning  in  1696.  The  third  volume  deals 
particularly  with  the  Iroquois. 

Barbeau,  C.  M.:  Iroquoian  Clans  and  Phratries.  Amer.  Anthr.,  n.  s., 
XIX,  392-402.  (1917.)  Criticism  by  A.  A.  Goldenweiser  in  same 
journal,  XX,  118-120.  (1918.) 

Bartram,  J.:  Observations  .  .  .  (London,  1751.)  Bartram  traveled 
through  the  Iroquois  country  in  the  summer  of  1743.  His  notes 
are  reliable. 

Beauchamp,  W.  M.:  Aboriginal  Communal  Life  in  America.  Amer. 
Antiq.  and  Oriental  Jour.,  IX,  343-350.  (1887.) 

Civil,  Religious  and  Mourning  Councils  and  Ceremonies  of  Adop 
tion  of  the  New  York  Indians.  N.  Y.  S.  M.  Bull.  113.  (Albany, 
1907.) 

Early  Religion  of  the  Iroquois.  Am.  Antiq.  and  Orient.  Jour., 
XIV,  344-349.  (1892.) 

The  Good  Hunter  and  the  Iroquois  Medicine.  Jour.  Am.  Folk- 
Lore,  XIV,  153-159.  (1901). 

Hiawatha.    Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  IV,  295-306.     (1891.) 

History  of  the  New  York  Iroquois.  N.  Y.  S.  M.  Bull.,  78. 
(Albany,  1905.) 

104 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  105 

An  Iroquois  Condolence.     Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  VIII,  313-316.     (1895). 

Iroquois  Notes.  Jour.  Am.  F-L.,  IV,  39-46.  (1891.)  Ibid.,  V, 
223-229.  (1892.) 

The  Iroquois  Trail.  (Fayetteville,  N.  Y.,  1892.)  This  little  book 
includes  David  CusicWs  "Sketches  of  the  Ancient  History  of 
the  Six  Nations,"  which  is  an  account  by  an  Iroquois  of  the 
traditional  history  of  his  people. 

Iroquois  Women.     Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  XIII,  81-91,  281.     (1900.) 

The  New  Religion  of  the  Iroquois.  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  X,  169-180. 
(1897.)  Differs  little  from  account  given  by  Morgan. 

Onondaga  and  Mohawk  Notes.  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  VIII,  209-221. 
(1895.) 

Onondaga  Tales.  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  I,  44-48;  II,  261-270;  VI,  173- 
184.  (1888,  1889,  1893.) 

Onondaga  Customs.     Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  I,  195-203.     (1888.) 

Origin  and  Antiquity  of  the  Iroquois.  Am.  Antiq.  and  Or.  Jour., 
VIII,  358-366;  IX,  37-39.  (1886,  1887.) 

The  Origin  of  the  Iroquois.  Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour.,  XVI,  61-69. 
(1894). 

Permanency  of  Iroquois  Clans  and  Sachemships.  Am.  A.  and  0. 
Jour.,  VIII,  82-91.  (1886.) 

Dr.  Beauchamp  hag  studied  Iroquois  life  for  many  years.  Fre 
quently  he  has  been  uncritical,  so  it  is  well  to  compare  his 
observations  and  interpretations  with  those  made  by  other  in 
vestigators.  See  the  comment  following  Lafitau,  Parker  and 
Mrs.  Smith. 

Boyle,  D.:  On  the  Paganism  of  the  Civilized  Iroquois  of  Ontario.     Jour. 
Anthr.  Institute,  XXX   (n.  s.,  Ill),  263-273.     (1900.)     An  able 
article  by  a  curator  of  the  Archaeological  Museum  of  Ontario. 
Brant-Sero,  J.  O.:  Dekanawideh:  the  Law-giver  of  the  Caniengahakas. 

Man,  1901:  166-170.     Author  is  a  Canadian  Mohawk. 
Brinton,  D.  G.:  American  Hero  Myths.     (Philadelphia,  1882.) 

Myths  of  the  New  World.     (New  York,  1868.) 
XJanfield,  W.  W.:  *Legends  of  the  Iroquois,  Told  by  "  The  Cornplanter." 

(New  York,  1902.) 

Cartier,  J.:  "Memoir  of  Jacques  Cartier,"  translated  and  annotated 
by  J.  P.  Baxter.  (New  York,  1906.)  Includes  a  bibliography, 
original  manuscript  of  the  first  voyage,  and  maps,  diagrams 
and  pictures.  The  work  is  edited  well. 

Chadwick,  E.  M.:  The  People  of  the  Long  House.  (Toronto,  1897.) 
The  treatment  of  political  and  social  organization  is  good.  The 
facts  are  drawn  mainly  from  Hale,  Morgan,  Cusick  and 
Colden. 

Champlain,  S.  de:  "Voyages  and  Explorations  of  Samuel  de  Cham- 
plain  .  .  .  ,"  translated  by  Annie  N.  Bourne  and  edited  with 
introduction  and  notes  by  E.  G.  Bourne,  in  two  volumes.  (New 
York,  1906.)  There  is  an  older  translation,  by  C.  P.  Otis,  of 
which  the  Bournes  make  use  and  which  includes  many  supple- 


106  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

mentary  documents.  Otis's  translation  is  published  as  vols. 
XI,  XII,  XIII  of  the  Publications  of  the  Prince  Society  and  is 
edited  and  annotated  by  E.  F.  Slafter.  (Boston,  1880-1882.) 

Charlevoix,  P.  F.  X.  de:  History  and  General  Description  of  New 
France.  (1743.)  Translated  and  annotated  by  J.  G.  Shea,  in 
six  volumes.  (New  York,  1866.)  In  his  account  of  New 
France  Charlevoix  relied  upon  the  Jesuit  Relations. 
•Voyage  to  North  America,  2  vols.  (Tr.  Dublin,  1766.)  A  series  of 
letters  written  beginning  with  his  arrival  in  America  in  June, 
1720. 

Clark,  J.  V.  H.:  Onondaga,  vol.  I.     (Syracuse,  1849.) 

Golden,  C.:  *History  of  the  Five  Indian  Nations.  (New  York,  1727.) 
Edition  used  is  that  published  by  A.  S.  Barnes  &  Co.,  in  2  vols., 
New  York,  1904. 

Colden,  a  Surveyor-General  and  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the 
Province  of  New  York,  was  a  Mohawk  by  adoption.  Volume 
one  of  his  History  is  an  account  mainly  of  the  external  relations 
of  the  Iroquois.  Volume  two  reprints  the  minutes  of  sundry 
councils.  The  work  is  anti-French,  but  is  trustworthy  for  Iro- 
*^  quois  customs. 

Converse,  H.  M.:  *Myths  and  Legends  of  the  New  York  State  Iroquois. 
(Albany,  1908.)  Edited  and  annotated  by  A.  C.  Parker  and  ap 
pearing  as  N.  Y.  S.  M.  Bull.  125.  Is  excellent.  Mrs.  Converse 
was  acquainted  intimately  with  the  Iroquois,  was  an  adopted 
Seneca  and  a  member  of  an  ancient  secret  society,  and  was  one 
of  the  Chiefs  of  the  Six  Nations. 

Cusick,  D.:   (See  Beauchamp's  "Iroquois  Trail*'  above.) 

Donck,  A,  van  der:  Description  of  the  New  Netherland.  (New  York, 
1841.)  Translated  by  J.  Johnson  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
second  ser.,  I,  125-242,  from  the  edition  of  1656.  Van  der 
Donck,  a  lawyer,  arrived  in  the  New  Netherland  in  1642.  He 
was  untrained  for  the  task  of  studying  the  Indians  and  as  a 
result  his  treatment  of  their  religion  and  morals  is  incomplete 
and  unsatisfactory.  His  account,  however,  of  the  geography  of 
the  country  is  good. 

Donohoe,  Thos.:  The  Iroquois  and  The  Jesuits.  (Buffalo,  1895.)  A 
reliable  digest  of  the  Jesuit  Relations  with  especial  emphasis 
upon  the  missions. 

Douglas,  J.:  Consolidation  of  the  Iroquois  Confederacy.  Jour.  Am. 
Qeog.  8oc.,  XXIX,  41-54.  (1897.) 

Ooldenwelser,  A,  A.:  *In  Geol.  Survey  of  Canada,  Report  of  the  Anthr. 
Div.,  Sessional  Paper  no.  26,  pp.  464-475  (1912)  ;  Sess.  Paper 
no.  26;  365-372  (1913).  A  reliable  report  upon  field  work 
among  the  Iroquois  at  Grand  River,  Ontario,  in  1911,  1912  and 
1913.  The  emphasis  is  upon  social  organization. 

Oreenhalgh,  W.:  Observations  .  .  .  (1677.)  Given  in  the  Doc.  Hist,  of 
N.  Y.,  I,  11-14.  It  is  quoted  copiously  by  L.  H.  Morgan  in 
"House-Life  .  .  .  ."  Greenhalgh's  description  of  the  Iroquois 
house  as  he  saw  it  on  his  visit  is  trustworthy. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  107 

Hagar,  S.:  The  Celestial  Bear.     Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  XIII,  92-103.     (1900.) 

An  excellent  account  of  the  Indian  myth  of  Ursa  Major. 
Hale,  H.:  The  Fall  of  Hochelaga.     Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  VII,  1-14.     (1894.) 

Huron  Folk  Lore.     Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  I,  177-183.     (1888.) 

*The  Iroquois  Book  of  Kites.  (Phila.,  1883.)  No.  2  of  D.  G. 
Brinton's  "Library  of  Aboriginal  Literature."  This  careful 
study  of  the  Condolence  is  one  of  the  few  noted  books  on  the 
Iroquois. 

Iroquois  Condoling  Council.  Trans,  of  the  Royal  Soc.  of  Canada, 
2d  ser.,  sec.  2,  I,  45-65.  (1895-1896.) 

The  Iroquois  Sacrifice  of  the  White  Dog.     Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour., 

VII,  7-14;  cf.  235-239.      (1885.) 
Harrington,  M.  R.:   Some  Unusual  Iroquois   Specimens.     Am.  Anthr., 

n.  s.,  XI,  85-91.     (1909.) 

Heckewelder,  J.:  ^History  ...  of  the  Indian  Nations  .  .  .  (1876.) 
Hist.  Soc.  of  Pennd.,  Memoirs,  no.  XII.  Heckewelder  for  up 
wards  of  fifty  years  beginning  with  1762  was  a  missionary  and 
a  worker  among  the  Indians  of  our  middle  colonies  and  states. 
His  treatment  is  flattering,  but  nevertheless  illuminating. 
Quotations  from  the  rare  manuscript  of  the  missionary  Pyrlaeus, 
who  was  among  the  Mohawks  for  two  months  in  1763,  are  given. 
The  worthwhile  extracts  are  to  be  found  on  pages  54  (note  2), 
56  (note  1),  61,  96,  251. 

Hewitt,  J.  N.  B.:  Cosmogonic  Gods  of  the  Iroquois.  Am.  Ass.  Adv.  Sci., 
Proc.,  XLIV,  241-250.  (1895.) 

Era  of  the  Formation  of  the  Historic  League  of  the  Iroquois. 
Am.  Anthr.,  VII,  61-67.  (1894.) 

*The  Iroquoian  Concept  of  the  Soul.  Jour.  Am.  F.-L.,  VIII,  107- 
116.  (1895.) 

*Iroquoian  Cosmology.  Twenty-first  Annual  Eep.,  Bur.  Am. 
Ethn.,  127-339.  (1899-1900.)  Contains  originals  and  trans 
lations  of  the  creation  myths  of  the  Onondagas,  Senecas  and 
Mohawks.  Hewitt's  exposition  is  superior  to  any  other  account 
of  these  myths. 

Legend  of  the  Founding  of  the  Iroquois  League.  Am.  Anthr.,  V, 
131-148.  (1892.) 

New  Fire  among  the  Iroquois.     Am.  Anthr.,  II,  319.     (1889.) 

Orenda,  and  a  Definition  of  Religion.  Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.  IV,  33-46. 
(1902.)  Hewitt's  interpretations  frequently  are  questioned. 

Phoebe  Bird  in  Iroquois  Mythology.     Am.  Anthr.,  V,  36.     (1892.) 

Raising  and  Falling  of  the  Sky  in  Iroquois  Legends.  Am.  Anthr., 
V,  344.  (1892.) 

Sacred  Numbers  among  the  Iroquois.  Am.  Anthr.,  II,  165—166. 
(1889.) 

(Seneca  Myths  and  Fiction.  A  collection  by  Jeremiah  Curtin  and 
J.  N.  B.  Hewitt  which  will  appear  as  the  32d  annual  report 
(for  1910-1911)  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology.  There 


108  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

is  every  indication  that  this  collection  will  be  one  of  the  best 
yet  made.) 

The  Term  Hai-Hai  of  Iroquois  Mourning  and  Condolence  Songs. 
Am.  Anthr.,  XI,  286-287.  (1898.) 

Hodge,  F.  W.  (ed.):  *Handbook  of  American  Indians,  2  vols.  Bull. 
XXX  of  Bur.  Ethn.  (1907,  1910.)  Encyclopaedic  in  character 
and  authoritative. 

*Jesuit  Relations.  (Cleveland,  1896-1901.)  Edition  prepared  by  R.  G. 
Thwaites  and  assistants.  The  Relations  are  presented  in  73 
volumes  both  in  the  original  languages  and  in  English  transla 
tion.  These  Jesuit  reports  are  the  monumental  work  on  the 
Iroquois,  and  other  Indians,  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries.  They  are  indispensable.  Volumes  referred  to  in 
text  are:  VIII,  X,  XXIII,  XXIV,  XXV,  XXXI,  XXXIV, 
XXXIX,  XL,  XLI,  XLII,  XLIII,  XLIV,  XLVII,  LI,  LIII,  LIV, 
LVII,  LVIII. 

Johnson,  E.:  Legends,  Traditions  and  Laws  of  the  Iroquois  .  .  .  (Lock- 
port,  N.  Y.,  1881.)  Johnson,  like  Hewitt  and  Parker,  was  an 
Iroquois. 

Lafitau,  P.:  *Mo?urs  des  Sauvages  ameriquains.  (Paris,  1724.) 
Charlevoix's  "Voyage  to  North  America,"  the  Jesuit  Relations 
and  these  two  volumes  by  Lafitau  are  the  three  superior  works 
dealing  with  the  Iroquois  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries. 

"La  Hontan's  New  Voyages  to  North  America,"  edited  by  R.  G. 
Thwaites  in  2  vols.  (Chicago,  1905.)  These  volumes  are  a 
reprint  of  the  English  edition  of  1703.  La  Hontan,  a  cynical 
young  baron,  joined  the  Canadian  army  in  1683  and  remained  in 
this  country  for  almost  ten  years.  He  recounts  his  observa 
tions  in  his  "New  Voyages."  La  Hontan  had  an  active 
imagination. 

Lescarbot,  M.:  Histoire  de  La  Nouvelle-France,  3  vols.  (1612.)  Edi 
tion  used  is  that  of  1866  (Paris).  A  pompous  work  by  a 
lawyer  who  says  he  had  "  Ocular  testimony  of  a  portion  of  the 
things  .  .  .  described."  Vol.  Ill,  bk.  vi,  623-851  has  some  value 
for  this  study.  A  detailed  table  of  contents  is  tucked  away 
in  vol.  Ill,  853  sq. 

Loskiel,  Q.  Q.:  History  of  the  Mission  of  the  United  Brethren  among 
the  Indians  in  North  America.  (1788.)  Translated,  London, 
1794.  Part  I  is  useful  for  this  study  and  is  trustworthy. 

Morgan,  L,  EL:  House  and  House  Life  of  the  American  Aborigines. 
U.  S.  Geog.  and  Geol.  Surveys,  Contribs.  to  Am.  Ethn.,  no.  4. 
(Washington,  1881.) 

*The  League  of  the  .  .  .  Iroquois,  2  vols.  (N.  Y.,  1901.)  This 
edition  is  annotated  copiously  by  H.  M.  Lloyd.  Morgan's  work 
is  reliable  for  the  nineteenth  century  Iroquois  and  is  the 
greatest  work  dealing  with  the  Iroquois  alone.  Indispensable. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  109 

O'Callaghan,  E,  B.  (ed.)  :  Documentary  History  of  the  State  of  New 
York  .  .  .  Arranged  ...  by  Christopher  Morgan,  4  vols.  (Al 
bany,  1849.) 

Documents  Relative  to  the  Colonial  History  of  the  State  of  New 
York  .  .  .  by  J.  R.  Brodhead  .  .  .  ,  14  vols.  (Albany.)  Treat 
ment  of  the  Iroquois  is  mainly  of  their  wars  and  other  external 
relations.  In  the  edition  of  1861,  vol.  XI,  295  sq.  has  the  index 
for  the  Iroquois. 

Parker,  A.  C.:  Certain  Iroquois  Tree  Myths  and  Symbols.  Am.  Anthr., 
n.  s.,  XIV,  608-620.  (1912.) 

*Code  of  Handsome  Lake,  the  Seneca  Prophet.  N.  Y.  S.  M.  Bull. 
163.  (Albany,  1913.)  Translation  made  by  William  Bluesky, 
Baptist  lay  preacher,  from  the  Seneca  account  of  Edward  Corn- 
planter  begun  in  1903. 

*The  Constitution  of  the  Five  Nations  or  the  Iroquois  Book  of 
the  Great  Law.  N.  Y.  S.  M.  Bull.  184.  (Albany,  1916.) 
Parker's  version  should  be  compared  with  the  work  of  Scott 
and  of  Hale.  Parker's  is  one  of  the  few  excellent  translations 
of  the  Deganawida  Myth.  With  the  passing  of  decades  the 
Myth  of  necessity  has  undergone  changes  so  that  agreement  in 
the  details  of  the  various  versions  can  not  be  expected.  Parker's 
presentation  rests  upon  two  manuscripts,  one  prepared  by  a 
Mohawk,  Seth  Newhouse,  and  edited  by  Albert  Cusick,  an 
Onondaga-Tuscarora.  The  other,  which  Parker  reprints,  was 
compiled  by  chiefs  of  the  Council  of  the  Six  Nations  and  was 
revised  by  some  of  them  and  written  down,  with  some  sug 
gestions  by  Albert  Cusick. 

*Iroquois  Uses  of  Maize  and  Other  Food  Plants.  N.  Y.  S.  M.  Bull. 
144.  (Albany,  1910.)  Authoritative  discussion  of  agricultural 
life  of  Iroquois. 

The  Origin  of  the  Iroquois  as  Suggested  by  Their  Archaeology. 
Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.,  XVIII,  479-507.  (1916.)  Parker  is  very  re 
liable  and  deeply  versed  in  the  life  and  lore  of  the  Iroquois. 
His  remarks  are  always  worthy  of  careful  consideration.  At 
present  he  is  the  archaeologist  of  the  N.  Y.  S.  Museum. 

Seneca  Medicine  Societies.  Am.  Anthr.,  n.  s.,  XI,  161-185. 
(1909.)  The  works  of  Hale,  Hewitt,  Morgan  and  particularly 
of  Parker,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  are  invaluable  to  a  student 
of  the  Iroquois. 

Penna.  Magazine  of  History,  vols.  I-III.  Phila.  (1877-1879.)  Vol. 
I,  163-167  and  vol.  II,  407-409,  contain  a  letter  written  by 
Conrad  Weiser  in  1746  after  a  trip  to  Onondaga.  Vol.  Ill, 
56-64,  reprints  a  part  of  Bishop  Spangenberg's  diary  of  his  and 
Weiser'g  trip  to  Onondaga  in  1745. 

Sagard,  F.  G.:  Histoire  du  Canada.     (1636.)     Edition  used  is  that  of  ^  ' 
1866    (Paris),  in  2  vols.     Deals  with  the  period  from   1615  on,     r, 
and  is  an  account  of  the  work  of  the  Minor  Recollects  in  Canada 
by  one  of  them. 


110  IROQUOIS  RELIGION. 

Sanborn,  J.  W.:  Legends,  Customs  and  Social  Life  of  the  Seneca  In 
dians  .  .  .  (Gowanda,  N.  Y.,  1878.)  Sanborn,  a  preacher,  lived 
among  the  Iroquois. 

Schoolcraft,  EL  IL:   Notes  on  the  Iroquois.     (N.  Y.,   1846.)     Must  be 

used  with  care. 
Myth  of  Hiawatha  .  .  .   (Phila.,  1856.) 

Scott,  D.  0.:  'Traditional  History  of  the  Confederacy  of  the  Six  Na 
tions.  (Ottawa,  1912.)  This  version  of  the  Deganawida  Myth 
was  prepared  by  a  committee  of  chiefs  and  was  presented  by 
Scott  to  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada.  It  is  printed  in  their 
Transactions,  ser.  3  (1911),  vol.  V,  sec.  2,  195-246. 

Seaver,  J.  E.:  Life  of  Mary  Jemison,  5th  edition.     (Buffalo,  1877.) 

Smith,  De  C.:  Witchcraft  and  Demonism  of  the  Modern  Iroquois.  Jour. 
Am.  F.-L.,  I.  184-194;  II,  277-281.  (1888,  1889.) 

Smith,  Mrs.  E.  A.:   The  Customs  and  the  Language  of  the  Iroquois. 

Jour.  Anthr.  Inst.,  XIV,  244-253.     (1884-1885.) 

*Myths  of  the  Iroquois.  Bur.  Am.  Ethn.,  Rep.  II,  47-116.  (1880- 
1881.)  Is  summarized  by  the  author  in  the  Am.  A.  and  0.  Jour., 
IV,  31-39.  (1882.)  The  best  collections  of  myths  are  those 
made  by  Canfield,  Converse  and  Mrs.  Smith.  The  Curtin  and 
Hewitt  collection  will  soon  be  added  to  these. 

Stites,  Sara  H.:  Economics  of  the  Iroquois.  (Bryn  Mawr,  1905.) 
Bryn  Mawr  Mon.,  Ser.  I,  no.  3.  An  able  monograph  but  one 
which  overemphasizes  the  economic  interpretation  of  Iroquois 
society. 

Stone,  W.  L.:  Life  of  Joseph  Brant,  2  vols.     (Albany,  1865.) 

Life  and  Time  of  Red  Jacket.  (Albany,  1866.)  Both  biographies 
are  thorough. 


VITA. 

Morris  Wolf.  Born,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  March  25,  1889. 
Central  High  School,  Philadelphia,  1903-1904;  De  Witt  Clin 
ton  High  School,  New  York,  1904-1907;  School  of  Pedagogy, 
Philadelphia,  1907-1909;  University  of  Pennsylvania,  1909- 
1911 ;  Columbia  University,  1911-  .  B.A.,  Columbia  Col 
lege,  1912 ;  M.A.,  Columbia  University,  1913.  Alumni  Scholar, 
Columbia  University,  1911-1912,  1912-1913.  Teacher,  Phila 
delphia  Public  Schools,  1909-1911;  Instructor  in  History, 
Girard  College,  Philadelphia,  1915- 

The  writer  thanks  whole-heartedly  members  of  the  Faculties 
of  Political  Science  and  Philosophy  for  making  his  stay  at 
Columbia  so  pleasant  and  above  all  for  the  tremendous  assist 
ance  their  lectures  and  their  personal  interest  have  afforded  his 
mental  and  moral  development. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  paper  the  author  is  conscious  of 
having  used  ideas  expressed  by  various  gentlemen  in  both 
faculties  and  especially  statements  made  by  Professor  Shotwell 
and  Professor  Dewey.  He  wishes  also  to  acknowledge  both  the 
kindness  of  Dr.  Gordon,  Curator  of  the  University  of  Penn 
sylvania  Museum,  for  permitting  him  to  use  the  fine  collection 
of  materials  in  the  anthropological  library,  and  the  helpfulness 
and  patience  of  the  librarian,  Mrs.  Fedil. 

Without  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Alexander  A.  Goldenweiser, 
of  Columbia  University,  the  writer  knows  this  paper  could  not 
have  been  prepared.  Not  only  has  it  benefited  by  his  sym 
pathetic  advice  concerning  its  proportions,  points  of  view  and 
arrangement,  but  almost  every  page  has  been  bettered  by  his 
supervision.  The  writer  is  deeply  grateful  to  Dr.  Golden 
weiser  for  his  interest,  kindness  and  unstinted  help. 


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